BERKELEY 

LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA 


^Iis 


T«S*' 


flDanual 


oi? 


Sacteb  IRbetoric; 


OR, 


Mow  to  prepare  a  Sermon* 


BY 


1RCV.  JSernar^  JFeenei^t 

5/f.  Joseph's  College, 
Mt,  Angely  Ore. 


ST.  LOUIS,  MO.,  1901. 

Published  by  B.  HARDER, 

17  South  Broadway. 


LOAN  STAG^ 

IMPRIMATUR. 
St.  Ivouis,  Mo.,  November  6th,  1900. 

H.  MuHHi^si^P^N,  V.  G. 


-BECKTOLD- 

PRINTING  AND  BOOK  MFG.  CO. 

ST.  LOUIS,  MO. 


Copyright,  1901,  by  Joseph  Gummersbach. 


Introduction. 

Some  hold  that  Preaching  is  not  an  art. 

*^A11  your  rules  of  rhetoric,  sacred  and 
profane/'  they  say,  ^^are  comprised  in  the 
good  old  American  maxim:  Fill  yourself 
full  of  your  subject,  as  though  you  were  a 
barrel;  take  out  the  bung;  and  let  nature 
caper.'' 

It  is  hardly  credible  that  such  advice 
could  be  given  or  taken  seriously.  Yet 
men,  unlikely  to  make  a  jest  of  sacred 
things,  have  been  known  to  give  it;  and 
sermons  heard  occasionally  in  our  pulpits 
prove  that  it  is  sometimes  followed  in  prac- 
tice. Nay,  often  the  practice  improves  on 
the  advice,  and  dispenses  altogether  with 
the  * 'filling  up"  process. 

There  must  be  art  in  the  doing  of  any 
work  in  which  complex  means  have  to  be 
employed  to  do  it  well ;  for  art  is  the  skill- 
ful use  of  such  means,  whether  the  work  be 
a  kitchen  table  or  an  epic  poem.     Now, 

(i) 


692 


ii  Introduction. 

Preaching  relying  on  divine  help,  under- 
takes a  very  difficult  and  complicated  work, 
namely,  to  move  the  will  of  another  from  a 
state  of  apathy  or  opposition  to  activity  in 
a  definite  direction.  To  do  this,  several 
means  have  to  be  employed :  obstacles  and 
prepossessions  have  to  be  removed ;  interest 
has  to  be  awakened  j  the  intellect  has  to  be 
enlightened  by  exposition  and  illustration ; 
the  feelings  have  to  be  aroused  and  enlisted  f 
the  will  itself  has  to  be  brought  under  the 
direct  influence  of  motives  calculated  to 
determine  it  to  action.  Each  of  these 
means  has  to  be  wisely  regulated  by  laws 
taken  from  the  highest  achievements  of  ora- 
tory and  based  on  the  principles  of  human 
thought  and  conduct.  Hence,  the  necessity 
of  an  ai-t  of  Sacred  Rhetoric,  to  acquire 
knowledge  of  those  laws  and  skill  in  their 
application. 

^^ApostoUc  Preaching''  is  often  spoken  of 
as  the  ideal  form  of  announcing  the  divine 
Word;  and  because  the  Apostles  are  not 
credited  with  a  knowledge  of  rhetoric,  their 
preaching  is  supposed  to  have  been  crude 
and  unartistic.  From  this  it  is  inferred  that 
unstudied,    unarranged     discourse,    when 


Introduction.  iii 

prompted  by  zeal,  is  immensely  superior  to 
discourse  that  is  well  ordered  and  elaborated. 
To  such  reasoning  it  is  enough  to  reply,  that 
we  are  not  the  Apostles :  we  have  not  seen 
our  Saviour  in  the  flesh  j  we  have  not  lived 
in  daily  intercourse  with  Him  for  years ;  we 
have  not  witnessed  His  miracles.  His  Re- 
surrection; we  have  not  the  whole-souled 
earnestness  of  the  Apostles,  —  their  ardent 
zeal,  their  heroic  sanctity.  We  cannot, 
therefore,  presume  to  preach  as  they 
preached,  unless,  having  seen  what  they 
saw,  we  live  and  labor  as  they  lived  and 
labored,  and  be  ready  to  die  as  they  died. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  the  preaching  of 
saints  and  saintly  men.  One  must  be  a 
Cure  of  Ars  to  preach  as  the  Cure  of  Ars. 
The  truth  is,  that  the  Church,  from  the 
beginning,  under  divine  guidance,  took  the 
arts  into  her  service;  and,  from  being 
ministers  of  sin,  she  made  them  agents  of 
grace  for  its  destruction.  Music,  painting, 
sculpture,  poetry  have  been  so  employed  by 
her ;  and  the  glorious  records  of  the  Catholic 
pulpit,  from  Cyprian  to  Lacordaire,  show 
conclusively  that  the  art  of  oratory  was  en- 
listed with  the  others. 


iv  Introduction, 

Preaching,  then,  being  an  art,  must  be 
studied  as  all  art  is  studied,  by  learning  its 
rules  or  methods,  and  by  applying  them. 
The  knowledge  of  rhetorical  rules  is  of  no 
practical  account  without  assiduous  exercise 
in  their  application.  Hence,  to  turn  out 
efficient  preachers,  long  and  uninterrupted 
training  in  the  composition  and  delivery  of 
sermons  is  absolutely  necessary.  This 
training  should  begin  in  the  preparatory 
seminary  and  be  continued  up  to  the  time 
of  ordination.  In  most  seminaries,  I  be- 
lieve, there  is  no  provision  made  for  the 
practice  of  English  composition  during  the 
philosophy  course;  and,  even  in  theology, 
the  only  exercises  in  it  are  the  writing  of  a 
few  sermons.  The  consequence  is  stiffness 
and  gradual  loss  of  skill  in  the  literary  ex- 
pression of  all  thought,  intellectual,  emo- 
tional, or  imaginative.  And  this  con- 
sequence follows  all  the  more  surely,  when 
Latin  is  the  only  language  used  in  the  prin- 
cipal classes ;  for  it  is  well  known  that  the 
daily  use  of  a  foreign  tongue  makes  it  diffi- 
cult to  speak  or  write  one^s  own  fluently 
and  idiomatically.  The  official  language  of 
the  Church  must,  indeed,  be  familiar  to 


Introduction,  V 

every  priest ;  but  its  influence  on  the  use  of 
the  vernacular  must  be  neutralized;  and 
this  can  be  done  only  by  systematic  exercise 
in  it  as  frequently  as  possible. 

I  know  that  those  charged  with  the  train- 
ing of  our  clergy  give  much  anxious  thought 
to  the  selection  of  such  exercises  and  studies 
as  are  best  adapted  to  the  formation  of  an 
efficient  priesthood.  It  is,  then,  with  no 
purpose  of  censuring  the  present  seminary 
curriculum,  that  I  would  suggest  some  such 
provisions  as  the  following  for  the  con- 
tinuous training  of  our  clerical  students  in 
composition  and  delivery. 

First,  in  the  preparatory  seminary,  I 
would  recommend  that  subjects  for  essays 
be  taken  exclusively  from  Bible  history,  in- 
cluding the  Life  and  Parables  of  our  divine 
Lord,  as  well  as  the  topography  of  the  Holy 
Land  and  the  manners,  dress,  domestic  life 
and  religious  worship  of  the  Jewish  people. 
Themes  taken  from  such  subjects  will  surely 
be  more  conducive  to  the  end  of  seminary 
training  than  those  usually  given  in  the 
rhetoric  class.  I  would  also  confine  elo- 
cutionary exercises  to  the  practice  of  expres- 
sive reading  and  graceful  gesture. 


vi  Introduction. 

Secondly,  one  or  two  classes  should  be 
given  every  week  to  composition  during  the 
philosophy  course.  The  aim  in  these  classes 
should  be  ease  and  skill  in  the  emotional 
and  imaginative  types  of  prose.  In  all 
literature,  no  better  models  of  these  types 
can  be  found  than  the  Psalms  and  Prophe- 
cies of  the  Bible.  These,  then,  ought  to  be 
read  carefully  and  repeatedly,  and  after- 
wards reproduced  or  paraphrased.  If  the 
seminary  cannot  afford  a  teacher  for  this 
work,  the  young  philosophers  should  be 
urged  to  do  it  by  themselves;  and  some 
gentle  pressure  might  be  brought  to  bear  on 
them  to  provide  against  their  forgetting  it. 

The  rules  of  Sacred  Ehetoric  ought  to  be 
mastered  in  the  first  year's  theology  and 
applied  in  the  succeeding  years.  The  best 
means  of  applying  them,  I  should  say,  is 
not  class  or  chapel  sermons  —  although 
these,  too,  are  necessary  —  but  carefully 
written  and  memorized  instructions  de- 
livered in  parish  churches,  at  first  in  the 
Sunday  school  and  afterwards  at  the  Masses. 
I  know  there  may  be  serious  obstacles  to 
such  parish  work ;  but  I  am  convinced  there 
is  none  that  cannot  be  overcome  by  tact 
and  patience. 


Inlroduction.  vii 

It  will  be  thought  by  some  that  these 
suggestions,  however  useful  in  theory,  re- 
quire in  practice  an  undue  share  of  the  time 
available  for  seminary  study  and  class  work. 
In  reply,  I  would  ask,  is  the  main  purpose  of 
an  American  seminary  the  formation  of  pro- 
found theologians,  without  any  trained 
ability  of  expression  ?  Of  what  practical 
use  would  such  men  be  in  our  missions  ? 
Does  an  apprentice  become  a  finished  car- 
penter by  the  study  of  mechanics  ?  Could 
a  man  be  trusted  to  run  a  locomotive  be- 
cause he  knows  all  about  the  theory  of 
steam  ?  Does  not  common  sense  insist  on 
practical  training  for  all  other  professions  I 
—  why,  then,  make  exception  of  the  priest- 
hood ?  If  anything  has  to  be  crushed  out 
of  the  curriculum,  why  must  it  be  the  art  of 
Preaching  —  practised  skiU  in  discharging 
a  primary  duty  of  our  ministry?  Our 
divine  Lord  did  not  say  to  the  Apostles: 
*^Go  and  learn  the  Protean  changes  of 
Katal,  the  force  of  Grreek  particles,  the 
interpretation  of  Koptic  papyri  and  Tel- 
el- Amarna  tablets ;''  but  ^^Gro  teach  ye 
all  nations/'  This  commission  imposes 
two  duties  on  seminaries:  to  impart  knowl- 


viii  Introduction. 

edge  of  what  to  teach,  and  skill  in  how  to 
teach  it.  The  one  duty  is  as  important  and 
essential  as  the  other.  A  priest  who  knows 
only  his  catechism  and  his  Bible,  but  is  well 
trained  in  the  art  of  appropriate  expression, 
is  better  equipped  for  saving  souls,  than 
one  who  has  the  Summa  and  its  commen- 
taries on  his  fingers'  ends,  but  cannot  turn 
out  a  decent  English  sentence.  With  all 
respect,  therefore,  for  other  seminary  clas- 
ses, I  claim  a  place,  and  an  important  place, 
for  the  class  of  Sacred  Ehetoric. 

It  is  not  the  time,  however,  given  for  such 
a  class  that  tells  with  seminarians,  as  much 
as  the  rank  the  class  holds  in  the  seminary 
and  the  importance  attached  to  it  by  the 
diocesan  authorities.  The  examination  for 
Orders  should  test  quite  as  carefully  the 
candidate's  fitness  for  the  pulpit  as  his  fit- 
ness for  the  confessional.  Furthermore, 
diocesan  promotions  should  be  made  to  de- 
pend largely  on  efficiency  in  preaching. 
Insistance  on  such  efficiency  as  a  conditio 
sine  qua  non  would  contribute  greatly  to 
emphasize  the  importance  of  preaching  for 
seminarians  and  priests  alike. 

This  Manual  has  been  written   from  a 


Introduction,  ix 

strong  conviction  that  something  has  to  be 
done  to  make  the  average  Sunday  sermon 
more  instructive,  more  interesting,  more 
effective  of  spiritual  good  than  it  is  at 
present.  Preaching  is,  no  doubt,  of  as  high 
an  order  now  as  it  has  ever  been;  but  it 
should  be  higher.  The  intelligence  of  those 
we  address  is  keener,  more  developed,  more 
inclined  to  scepticism,  perhaps,  than  in  past 
generations;  and  it  will  not  be  influenced 
by  cant  or  shallowness  or  tricks  of  style  or 
attitude.  In  these  days,  we  must  show  our- 
selves *  ^masters  of  the  situation,''  we  must 
^^teach  like  one  having  authority,''  if  we  are 
to  keep  our  hold  on  our  people.  Say  what 
we  may  about  our  ^  ^gigantic  strides"  during 
the  last  century,  there  has  been  much 
weakening  of  faith  among  us  from  our 
close  contact  with  non-Catholic  society  and 
literature.  It  is  evident,  then,  that  a  much 
more  strenuous  effort  is  needed  now  than 
was  needed  fifty  or  a  hundred  years  ago,  to 
safeguard  Catholics  against  the  dangers, 
intellectual  and  moral,  pressing  in  on  them 
from  this  contact. 

From  what  I  have  here  written,  the  two- 
fold object  of  this  Work  may  be  inferred. 


X  Introduction, 

It  is  intended,  first  of  all,  to  inculcate  the 
necessity  of  earnest  preparation  for  preach- 
ing, in  view  of  the  present  requirements  of 
American  life,  non-Catholic  as  well  as 
Catholic.  Its  other  object,  equally  im- 
portant as  the  first  and  demanding  more 
detailed  treatment,  is  to  show  ^^How  to 
prepare  a  Sermon.''  The  idea  throughout 
is  to  say  a  first  word,  not  the  last,  on  proper 
equipment  for  the  American  Catholic  pulpit. 
The  Chapters  on  the  Character  of  the 
Preacher,  on  his  Intellectual  Equipment, 
ann  on  the  Systematic  Teaching  of  Religion, 
are  republished,  with  permission,  from  the 
American  Ecclesiastical  Review, 


CONTENTS. 

Chapter.  Page. 

I.     What  is  Preaching 5 

II.     Personal  Character  of  the  Preacher 20 

III.  Mental  Equipment 33 

IV.  Faculty  of  Expression 51 

V.     Systematic  Teaching  of  Religion 69 

VI.     Definite  Object  of  Sermon 80 

VII.     Form  of  a  Sermon 92 

VIII.     Introduction 1 107 

IX,     Proposition  and  Division 129 

X.     Narration  and  Description 147 

XI.     Exposition  in  General 167 

XII.    Definition 176 

XIII.  Illustration 208 

XIV.  Historical  Development. 229 

XV.     Application 246 

XVI.     Persuasion 262 

XVII.     Conclusion 281 

XVIII.     Meditation  of  Theme 301 

XIX.     Reading  for  Matter 311 

XX.    Arrangement  and  Composition 323 


CHAPTER  I. 
What  is  Preaching? 

Eloquence  is  the  faculty  of  persuading 
another  to  some  definite  object.  Spoken 
language  is  its  chief  and  ordinary  form. 
Refined  to  an  art  and  embodied  in  continued 
oral  discourse,  it  is  styled  oratory.  This  is 
divided  into  sacred  and  profane,  according 
as  the  object  to  be  attained  belongs  to  the 
supernatural  or  the  natural  order. 

Sacred  oratory  is  popularly  called  Preach- 
ing, and  may  be  defined  as  the  address  of  a 
duly  appointed  minister  of  Christ  on  the  re- 
vealed word  of  Grod,  by  which  an  audience, 
/assisted  by  divine  grace,  is  persuaded  to 
some  definite  object  in  the  supernatural 
order.  Preaching  of  itself  cannot  be  the 
efficient  cause  of  conversion,  as  it  was  not 
instituted  by  our  divine  Lord  to  give  sanc- 
tifying grace ;  but  it  is  appointed  by  Him  to 
dispose  the  will  to  receive  and  use  those 
actual  graces  by  which  man  is  raised  to  the 
supernatural  life  or  confirmed  in  it. 
(5) 


y 


6  Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

r  The  object  of  Preaching  is  persuasion, 
that  is,  the  movement  of  the  will  to  some 
practical  issue  conducive  to  salvation.  The 
enlightenment  of  the  intellect  by  the  exposi- 
tion of  revealed  truth  is  a  necessary  means 
to  the  attainment  of  that  object, — but  only 
a  means.  A  minister  of  the  Glospel  who 
would  make  it  the  end  of  his  discourse 
might  speak  learnedly  and  usefully,  but  he 
would  not  preach.  To  do  this,  he  should, 
by  exposition  and  appeal  to  the  feelings  and 
passions,  disgust  men^s  souls  with  sin  and 
en  amor  them  of  the  sweet  yoke  of  Christ; 
he  should  stir  them  to  their  lowest  depths 
and  inmost  recesses;  he  should  pull  the 
bandage  from  their  eyes  and  show  them, 
with  blanched  cheek  and  awe-stricken  look, 
the  gulf  yawning  at  their  feet,  the  love  of 
Him  who  came  to  save  them  from  it,  the 
death  by  which  He  saved  them,  and  the 
bright  and  endless  future  which  that  death 
has  secured  for  them. 

That  the  movement  of  the  will  —  not 
merely  the  instruction  of  the  understand- 
ing —  was  to  be  the  object  of  all  apostolic 
preaching,  is  evident  from  the  words  our 
divine  Lord  addressed  to  His  apostles  im- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric,  7 

mediately  before  He  ascended  into  Heaven : 
^^Groing  therefore  teach  ye  all  nations.'^ 
Here  the  word  teach  is  an  inadequate  trans- 
lation of  the  Grreek  word  used  which 
means  not  solely  to  teach,  but  to  make  dis- 
ciples by  teaching ;  that  is,  to  use  words  of 
fire  that  will  at  the  same  time  enlighten  and 
in-fiame, — that  will  instruct  the  understand- 
ing and  reform  the  will 

This,  too,  is  the  meaning  of  St.  PauPs 
words  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews:  ^'The 
word  of  Grod  is  living  and  effectual,  and 
more  piercing  than  any  two-edged  sword: 
and  reaching  to  the  division  of  the  soul  and 
the  spirit,  of  the  joints  also  and  the  marrow, 
and  is  a  discerner  of  the  thoughts  and  in- 
tents of  the  heart.'' 

The  subject-matter  of  Preaching  is  the 
Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  is,  the  whole 
body  of  revelation,  clustered  round  and 
centering  in  the  Atonement  of  Calvary.  In 
other  words,  it  is  the  Logos,  foreshadowed 
in  the  Old  Law  and  fully  revealed  in  the 
New;  the  Logos  teaching,  saving,  govern- 
ing, as  Prophet,  Priest,  and  King;  the 
Logos  as  the  Way,  the  Truth  and  the  Life, — 
the  Way  guiding  human  conduct  by  His 


8  Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

commandments  and  counsels,  the  Truth  en- 
lightening the  human  intellect  by  the  dog- 
mas of  revelation,  the  Life  raising  men  to 
the  supernatural  state  by  the  Sacraments, 
the  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass,  and  other  salutary 
helps.  This  sublime  subject  must  be  taught 
in  popular,  persuasive  language,  as  its  direct 
and  primary  end  is  to  unite  the  souls  of  men 
with  Grod  through  the  grace  of  Jesus  Christ. 

There  is  no  true  Christian  Preaching  with- 
out a  legitimate  mission.  '^You  have  not 
chosen  me,''  says  our  divine  Lord,  ^^hut  I 
have  chosen  you,  that  you  may  go  and  hear 
fruit,  and  your  fruit  may  remain.^ ^  Hence, 
the  preaching  of  those  not  chosen  will  bear 
no  permanent  fruit,  though  they  speak  with 
the  vigor  of  the  Baptist,  with  the  eloquence 
of  Chrysostom.  Their  words  may  produce 
a  temporary  commotion  and  excitement, 
such  as  electricity  produces  in  a  dead  body ; 
but  the  body  remains  dead  all  the  same. 
In  fact,  preaching  without  a  mission  is  as 
irregular  in  the  religious  order,  as  the  ad- 
ministration of  Lynch  law  is  in  the  civil. 

Preaching  is  an  organic  function  of  the 
Church.  It  is  like  the  Sacraments  in  this, 
that  Christ  is  the  primary  and  efficient  cause 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric,  9 

or  agent  of  the  effect  produced,  the  preach- 
er^ s  office  being  only  secondary  and  minis- 
terial. St.  Paul  teaches  this  truth  with 
notable  persistence.  ^^Let  a  man  so  ac- 
count of  us  as  ministers  of  Christ  and 
the  dispensers  of  the  mysteries  of  Grod.^^ 
*^ We  are  therefore  ambassadors  for  Christ, 
God,  as  it  were,  exhorting  by  us.''  ^'Do 
you  seek  a  proof  of  Christ  that  speak- 
eth  in  me? ' '  Indeed,  this  idea  of  our  teach- 
ing as  Christ's  ambassadors  or  representa- 
tives is  significanly  contained  in  the  Grreek 
word  used  by  St.  Mark  to  express  our 
divine  Lord's  commission  to  the  apostles, 
so  that  the  full  meaning  of  the  text  is:  Go 
ye  into  the  whole  world,  and,  as  my  ambas- 
sadors,  teach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature. 
Still  more  explicitly  Christ  Himself  conveys 
this  important  truth  in  the  words :  You  are 
not  they  who  speak:  hut  the  Spirit  of  the 
Father  speaJceth  in  you.  And  elsewhere :  He 
that  heareth  you  heareth  Me:  and  he  that 
despiseth  you  despiseth  Me,  The  ambassador 
acts  ministerially  and  is  identified  with  the 
power  that  sends  him:  to  hear  the  one  is  to 
hear  the  other. 
In  preaching,  then,  the  priest  stands  be- 


10  Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

fore  his  people  as  the  representative,  the  ex- 
ponent, the  voice  of  Jesus  Christ:  Grod  ex- 
horts by  him ;  Christ  speaks  in  him.  What 
a  sublime  dignity,  and  what  an  incentive  to 
painstaking,  adequate  preparation !  ^  ^  What 
would  Christ  say  if  He  stood  here  in  the 
flesh  before  this  congregation  ?  How  would 
He  say  it?  How  am  I  to  say  the  same  thing 
so  as  not  to  discredit  my  ministry  or  Him 
whom  I  represent  r'  To  every  zealous 
priest,  these  questions  will  be  full  of  inspira- 
tion. Knowing  that  ^^every  best  gift  and 
every  perfect  gift  is  from  above,  ^^  he  will 
begin  his  preparation  with  prayer ;  he  will 
study  his  subject  thoroughly ;  his  vivid  con- 
ception of  it  will  suggest  ample  illustra- 
tions; he  will  keep  a  definite  object  before 
him,  and  use  every  effort  to  attain  it;  he 
will  be  simple,  direct,  earnest,  fearless,  as 
Christ  Himself  would  be ;  in  his  delivery,  he 
will  put  aside  all  thought  of  self,  all  timidity, 
all  human  respect,  no  matter  in  whose 
presence  he  stands;  for  as  ambassador  of 
his  divine  Master,  he  will  teach  as  one  hav- 
ing power  J  as  a  workman  that  needeth  not  to 
he  ashamed,  rightly  handling  the  word  of 
truth. 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.  11 

Some  pulpit  deliverances  that  we  hear  and 
read  are  not  worthy  of  the  name  of  Christ- 
tian  preaching.  Here,  for  example,  is  a 
sermon  on  Honest  Dealing.  The  preacher 
is  wholly  taken  up  with  giving  a  material 
view  of  his  theme,  and  makes  but  a  pass- 
ing allusion  to  its  connexion  with  the  super- 
natural life.  ^  ^Honesty  safeguards  against 
the  penitentiary ;  Honesty  begets  confidence, 
respect  and  esteem;  Honesty  is  the  best 
policy  —  it  brings  compound  interest.^' 
These  are  the  points  developed ;  and  to  en- 
force them,  only  the  grossest  self-interest  is 
appealed  to.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  there  is 
scarcely  a  passage  in  the  whole  discourse 
that  might  not  have  been  delivered  by  a 
pagan  philosopher,  if,  indeed,  he  would  be 
capable  of  uttering  such  commonplace  plat- 
itudes. The  preacher  evidently  forgot  that 
a  minister  of  the  Grospel  should  preach  the 
Gospel  and  the  Gospel  only.  ^Treach  the 
Gospel  to  every  creature,'^  is  the  commis- 
sion given  to  the  apostles  and  through  them 
to  every  duly  appointed  pastor  of  souls. 
We  have  no  divine  command  to  teach 
human  philosophy.  Ethical  discourses  are 
useful  in  their  place ;  but  their  place  is  not 


12  Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

the  Christian  pulpit.  I  admit  that  self- 
interest  and  other  natural  motives  not  only- 
may,  but  should,  be  urged  by  a  preacher  as 
secondary  incentives  to  supernatural  action. 
But  to  confine  one's  self  wholly  to  them  and 
thereby  imply  their  sufficiency  for  the  be- 
ginning and  development  of  Christian  life 
is  a  grave  mistake  involving  doctrinal  error 
and  leading  to  pernicious  practical  results. 
Christian  doctrine  is  sometimes  explained 
in  such  a  dry,  didactic  manner,  that  it  ex- 
ercises no  influence  on  the  will  or  spiritual 
nature  of  the  hearer.  His  acceptance  of 
divine  truth  seems  nothing  more  than  a 
purely  intellectual  act,  or,  at  best,  it  is  only 
that  dead  faith  of  which  St.  James  speaks. 
Such  discourse  is  not  preaching.  Our  mis- 
sion is  not  to  enlighten  the  intellect,  while 
we  leave  the  heart  festering  in  sin.  By 
virtue  of  our  priesthood  we  can  give  back 
life  to  the  dead  soul ;  and  by  the  obligation 
of  our  mission  we  are  commanded  to  do 
so. — Do  we  fulfill  this  duty  by  those  vapid, 
pointless  generalities  which  we  sometimes 
pass  off  on  our  people  for  sermons?  Think 
of  the  prophet  who  was  told  to  prophesy  to 
the  dry  bones,  and  to  call  the  spirit  from 


Manual  oj  Sacred  Bhetoric.  13 

the  four  winds  to  '^blow  on  these  slain  and 
let  them  live  again/' — think  of  him,  instead 
of  fulfilling  the  divine  injunction,  discours- 
ing to  them  on  osteology  or  Babylonian 
history.  Yet  such  violation  of  duty  would 
not  be  more  criminal  than  is  that  of  a  priest 
in  charge  of  souls  who  leaves  them  to  rot  in 
sin  while  he  explains  to  them  the  circumin- 
cessio  Trinitatis  or  the  communicatio  idioma- 
turn. 

Of  course,  doctrinal  instruction  has  to  be 
given  to  the  people.  Justus  mens  ex  fide  vivit. 
A  Christian  life  is  essentially  a  supernatural 
Hfe,  and  therefore  a  life  directed  by  divine 
truth.  Now  divine  truth  must  be  first  ap- 
prehended by  the  intellect  before  it  in- 
fluences the  will.  All  this  is  undeniable; 
but  it  proves  nothing  more  than  that  the 
knowledge  of  such  truth  is  a  necessary  con- 
dition of  effective  preaching.  Our  divine 
Lord,  as  I  have  already  intimated,  did  not 
send  His  apostles  to  establish  a  school  of 
philosophy,  but  a  living  body  of  earnest 
men,  '^ doers  of  the  word,  and  not  hearers 
only,*'  —  men  all  whose  actions  should  be 
supernaturalized  by  divine  knowledge  per- 
meating their  spiritual  nature,  regulating 


14  Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric, 

the  operations  of  all  their  faculties,  and  di- 
recting them  to  the  ultimate  end  of  Christian 
life,  namely,  union  through  Christ  with 
God. 

Wo  is  unto  me,  says  St.  Paul,  if  I  preach 
not  the  Gospel.  But  what  kind  of  preach- 
ing fulfills  this  grave  obligation?  Is  it  ful- 
filled by  merely  talking  at  random  to  the 
people  on  Sundays  and  holidays!  Some 
priests  think  so;  and  they  talk  usque  ad 
nauseam,  but  they  do  not  preach.  Being 
glib  of  tongue  and  in  no  danger  of  breaking 
down,  they  never  think  of  making  any 
serious  preparation  for  their  weekly  sermon. 
Before  going  into  the  pulpit,  they  put  to- 
gether a  few  commonplace  ideas  on  the 
Grospel  of  the  day,  or  they  read  over  cur- 
sorily some  other  one's  sermon.  They  then 
begin .  They  lash  themselves  into  a  passion 
for  no  apparent  reason;  they  beat  the  air 
with  unmeaning  gestures;  they  bellow, 
stamp,  overwhelm  their  hearers  with  a  de- 
luge of  high-sounding  but  senseless  words ; 
and  when,  after  much  floundering,  they 
come  to  an  end,  they  leave  the  pulpit  with 
the  self-satisfied  air  of  men  who  have  de- 
served well  of  Grod  and  humanity.      But 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric,  15 

they  are  not,  as  they  shall  one  day  find  out, 
of  the  seed  of  those  men  hy  whom  salvation 
was  brought  to  Israel.  They  incur  the  ^^wo'' 
of  St.  Paul  by  not  preaching  the  Gospel, 
and  they  incur  that  other  curse  uttered  by 
Jeremias  against  those  that  do  the  work  of 
the  Lord  ^'fraudulenter.'' 

The  people  themselves  contribute  much 
toward  the  continuance  of  this  kind  of 
preaching.  They  seem  to  be  satisfied  with 
it,  and  sometimes  they  even  applaud  it. 
Yet  how  are  they  bettered  by  it?  Does  it 
check  vice  among  them?  Does  it  make 
them  more  honest,  truthful,  pure,  charit- 
able! Does  it  bring  them  to  the  Sacra- 
ments? Does  it  make  the  home  happier, 
more  united,  more  Christian?  These  quest- 
ions the  people  never  put  to  themselves; 
and  hence  no  pressure  is  brought  to  bear  on 
the  pastor  to  make  him  supply  more  healthy 
food.  Human  nature  does  not  take  kindly 
to  the  earnest  preparation  necessary  for 
preaching.  It  must  feel  the  pressure  of 
some  external,  palpable,  material  motives 
before  it  can  be  kept  easily  on  a  high 
level  of  action.  Fear  of  consequences  helps 
to  make  the  priest  punctual  in  attending 


16  Manual  of  Sacred  Mhetoric, 

sick  calls :  could  it  not  be  made  to  help  also 
in  persuading  him  —  when  persuasion  is 
necessary  —  to  prepare  his  sermons  with 
more  care  and  thoroughness? 

The  truth  is,  that  the  bulk  of  people  pre- 
fer not  to  be  disturbed  in  their  sinful  habits. 
They  will  listen  patiently,  or  at  least  with- 
out open  protest,  to  any  amount  of  specula- 
tive instruction  on  matters  of  doctrine. 
They  are  interested  in  controversial  sub- 
jects; and  they  love  to  hear  heresy  de- 
nounced in  unmeasured  terms.  They  even 
shed  tears  at  pathetic  passages  of  sermons, 
and  congratulate  the  preacher,  and  they 
seem  to  flatter  themselves  that  the  tears 
and  congratulations  are  manifestations  of  a 
religious  spirit.  But  that  restitution  they 
have  to  make;  that  lie  about  a  neighbor 
they  have  to  retract ;  that  vicious  habit  or 
occasion  of  sin  they  do  not  wish  to  give  up ; 
that  sacrilegious  confession  they  have  to 
make  right :  these  and  other  sore  spots  in 
the  conscience  they  wish  the  preacher  to 
handle  lightly. 

Every  priest  in  charge  of  souls  should  be 
deeply  impressed  with  the  vital  importance 
of  preaching,  as  a  condition  of  salvation, 


/ 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.  17 

not  only  for  his  people,  but  also  for  himself. 
In  God^s  ordinary  providence,  sinners  take 
the  first  step  toward  conversion  when  they 
hear  the  truths  of  the  Gospel  announced  to 
them.  And  if  those  truths  be  not  fittingly 
announced  and  a  sinner  be  lost  in  con- 
sequence, who  —  the  preacher  or  the  sinner 
— will  merit  ^and  receive  the  greater  punish- 
ment? 

I  do  not  believe  that  priets  in  this  country 
are  negligent  in  preparing  their  sermons; 
yet  I  presume  to  think  that  more  abundant 
fruit  might  be  produced,  if  some  of  them 
were  more  self-reliant  and  original,  if  they 
collected  their  matter  from  theology, 
Scripture,  and  Church  history,  rather  than 
from  foreign  sermon  books,  and  also,  per- 
haps, if  they  kept  their  minds  filled  with  a 
constant  supply  of  fresh  spiritual  ideas  by 
meditation  and  spiritual  reading.  The  es- 
sential conservatism  of  the  Church  inclines 
priests  to  be  conservative  also  in  their 
method  of  preaching.  Yet,  non  nova  sed 
nove,  is  a  sound  principle  in  perfect  keeping 
with  the  usage  of  all  our  great  preachers 
and  writers.  The  continuity  of  Catholic 
doctrine  does  not  imply  continuity  in  the 


18  Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric. 

manner  of  presenting  it.  We  are  therefore 
free  from  the  traditional  mannerisms  of  the 
European  pulpit ;  we  are  justified  in  break- 
ing oflE  from  all  foreign  methods  of  preach- 
ing ;  and,  what  is  more,  we  are  obliged  to 
break  off  from  them,  that  we  may  adapt 
our  mode  of  announcing  the  Gospel  to  the 
peculiar  character  and  the  advanced  civili- 
zation of  our  people. 

Note:.  It  is  unnecessary  to  tell  Catholic  readers  that 
preaching  has  been  always  practised  in  the  Church,  as 
one  of  her  most  important  organic  functions.  Yet, 
among  the  traditional  misrepresentations  which  are 
still  used  to  turn  honest  minds  against  us  is  this,  that 
preaching  fell  into  disuse  in  the  Middle  Ages.  **When 
the  Church,"  says  Dr.  Phelps,  **lost  its  faith  in  the 
Bible  as  the  only  inspired  source  of  knowledge,  then 
sacerdotalism  took  the  place  of  religious  teaching,  and 
the  priesthood  became  too  ignorant  or  too  indolent,  or 
both,  to  become  preachers." 

A  candid  speaker,  before  making  this  sweeping  state- 
ment to  a  class  of  theological  students,  would  have  in- 
quired whether  we  Catholics  denied  it,  and  if  so,  on 
what  authority.  Let  us  take  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries  as  typical  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  let  us  turn 
to  Alzog's  History  of  the  Church,  Vol.  ii,  p.  10B3 
(Pabisch  and  Byrne's  translation);  we  read  as  follows  : 
"Richard  of  St.  Victor  (cir.  A.  D.  1164),  in  a  sermon 
delivered  on  Easter  Sunday,  said  that  it  was  not  his  in- 
tention to  instruct  his  hearers,  but  simply  to  recall 
truths  and  facts  to  their  minds  ;  because,  he  added,  they 
knew  the  teaching  of  Holy  Scripture  as  well  as  him- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 


19 


self."  Further  on  Alzog  writes :  "Among  the  most  emi- 
nent preachers  of  those  times  may  be  reckoned  St.  Yves 
of  Chartres,  St.  Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  Hildebert  of 
Mans,  Godfrey  of  Bordeaux,  Guilbert  de  la  Porree,  Abe- 
lard,  St.  Bonaventure,  St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  and  many 
more  of  the  Schoolmen,  who  put  aside,  for  the  time,  the 
rigorous  forms  of  the  schools,  and  while  instructing  the 
people,  employed  language  the  most  simple  and  the 
best  calculated  to  convey  to  their  minds  a  clear  and  in- 
telligible idea  of  the  matter  in  hand  ....  As  was  natural 
in  an  age  when  great  preachers  abounded,  there  were 
not  wanting  directions  as  to  the  best  method  of  render- 
ing preaching  fruitful  in  good  results.  Treatises  were 
written  on  the  subject  by  Alanus  of  Ryssel  and  Guibert 
of  Nogent,"  etc.,  etc. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Personal  Character  of  the  Preacher. 

MoEAL  character  is  the  foundation  of  all 
effective  preaching.  Ancient  writers  re- 
cognized its  necessity  for  secular  oratory. 
Sit  ergo  nobis,  writes  Quintilian,  orator  quem 
instituimuSy  is  qui  a  M.  Catone  finitur,  vir 
bonus,  dicendiperitus.  What  place,  he  asks, 
is  there  for  the  cultivation  of  letters  or  art 
in  a  mind  enslaved  by  passion?  and  he 
answers:  Non,  hercle,  magis  quam  frugibus 
in  terra,  sentibus  ac  rubis  occupata.  .  .  .  Non 
igitur  unquam  malus  idem  homo  et  perfectus 
orator,  A  priest^s  normal  relation  to  Grod, 
established  by  sanctifying  grace,  may  be  in- 
terrupted in  a  moment  of  weakness  and  re- 
newed afterwards ;  but  should  he  once  com- 
mit himself  seriously  in  the  parish  where  he 
ministers,  no  repentance  will  give  back  to 
his  words  the  weight  they  had  before  his 
fall.  When  he  is  most  eloquent — makes  the 
strongest  and  most  impassioned  appeal  to 
(20) 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.  21 

the  will — it  will  be  remembered  against  him, 
no  doubt  unjustly,  that  he  did  not  formerly 
act  on  his  own  words ;  and  the  remembrance 
will  very  much  discount  the  force  of  his 
pleading.  If  this  be  the  case  with  one  who 
has  done  his  utmost  to  repair  the  past, 
what  will  it  be  with  him  who  has  made  no 
effort  to  repair  it?  How  can  he  expect  to 
teach  effectively  truths  and  duties  which,  it 
is  shrewdly  suspected,  exercise  no  influence 
on  his  own  life  and  conduct? 

Hence,  for  a  priest^s  words  to  have  due 
influence  on  his  people,  he  must  be  respected 
by  them,  not  only  for  his  official  position, 
but  also  for  his  personal  worth  as  a  man 
and  a  Christian.  They  must  believe  im- 
phcitly  in  his  learning,  his  judgment,  his 
sincerity  and  consistency,  his  personal  holi- 
ness, and  his  earnest  concern  for  their  sal- 
vation. They  may  applaud  a  facile,  grace- 
ful, sweet-voiced  speaker;  and,  bound  by 
the  magic  of  his  words,  they  may  be  forced 
to  weep  or  smile  at  his  bidding :  but  when 
he  would  persuade  them  to  a  change  of  life, 
to  the  sacrifice  of  long-cherished  habits — to 
the  patient  wearing  of  a  crown  of  thorns  — 
they  look  to  the  man  behind  his  words,  and 


22  Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

the  final  issue  generally  depends  not  on  what 
he  says,  but  on  what  he  is.  We  look  for 
light  and  counsel  only  to  honest,  unselfish, 
reliable  men — men  who  speak  decisively,  but 
only  from  experience  and  conviction,  who 
are  incapable  of  deceiving,  whose  sterling 
personal  worth  has  passed  into  a  proverb. 

How  is  such  a  character  to  be  acquired 
and  maintained?  Certainly  not  by  hypocrisy. 
ThewoKin  sheep's  clothing,  no  matter  how 
circumspect,  is  at  best  a  clumsy  bungler, 
and  betrays  himself  sooner  or  later.  Dis- 
covery has  ever  been  the  end  of  all  double 
Uves.  Mr.  Hyde  is  invariably  identified 
with  Dr.  Jekyl;  and  then  come  collapse, 
shame,  scandal,  etc.  It  would,  therefore, 
be  as  silly  as  it  would  be  sinful  to  attempt 
to  keep  up  a  respectable  character  before 
the  public,  while  the  interior  remained 
depraved  and  vicious.  A  man's  true  char- 
acter is  revealed  more  unmistakably  in  his 
unconscious  and  spontaneous,  than  in  his 
conscious  and  studied,  actions.  No  one  can 
be  always  on  his  guard ;  and  when  he  is  off 
it,  natural  disposition  will  break  out.  The 
more  successful  he  is  in  his  first  efforts  to 
deceive,  the  more  likely  is  he  afterwards  to 


Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric,  23 

drop  the  mask  or  to  be  caught  grinning  be- 
hind it. 

All  pretence,  then,  of  piety  and  sancti- 
moniousness, as  a  means  of  establishing  a 
reputation,  would  inevitably  end  in  failure 
and  disgrace.  But  even  though  it  succeeded, 
the  hypocritical  preacher  would  gain  little 
by  it.  The  self -contempt  naturally  pro- 
duced by  it  would,  without  his  knowing  it, 
react  on  his  style  and  delivery,  and  give  a 
hollow  ring  to  his  voice,  and  break  that 
magnetic  current  that  ever  flows  between 
the  sincere,  earnest  speaker  and  his  audi- 
ence. 

No ;  there  is  but  one  way  to  gain  a  lasting 
solid  reputation,  and  it  is,  to  be  what  you 
appear  to  be.  Personal,  interior  holiness 
of  life  must  be  the  living  root  from 
which  those  outward  actions  of  yours  will 
grow,  by  which  your  character  with  your 
people  is  to  be  determined.  Our  Saviour^s 
eighteen  years'  abode  in  Nazareth,  His  forty 
days'  retreat  in  the  desert,  His  prayer  in  the 
garden,  —  all  teach  us  this  lesson,  that  to 
draw  others  to  Grod,  we  must,  first,  be  our- 
selves united  to  Him.  We  must  practise 
prayer  and  self-denial  and  works  of  mercy 


24  Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric. 

and  justice,  for  our  own  personal  sanctifica- 
tion,  before  we  can  duly  enforce  these 
obligations  on  others.  It  is  only  when  we 
do  practise  them,  that  we  may  expect  our 
words  to  be  charged  with  the  most  abundant 
grace  for  those  who  hear  them.  Then 
alone  shall  we  be  best  able  to  blend  sweet- 
ness with  strength,  mercy  for  the  sinner 
with  zeal  for  Grod^s  honor.  Then  will  our 
people  be  converted  to  the  heart,  when  in 
our  burning  words  mercy  and  truth  will 
have  met  each  other;  justice  and  peace  will 
have  kissed. 

But  the  personal  holiness  of  the  preacher 
will  have  another  effect  on  his  words.  It 
will  enable  him,  as  nothing  else  could 
do,  to  present  the  familiar  truths  of  re- 
ligion in  the  fresh,  vivid,  and  attractive 
colors  in  which  daily  meditation  has  clothed 
them  in  his  own  soul.  His  well-ordered 
words  tvill  he  as  a  honey comhy  sweet  to  the 
soulj  because  they  will  originate  in  his  own 
sweet,  habitual  converse  with  his  divine 
Master  in  prayer.  The  most  beautiful  as 
well  as  the  most  sublime  doctrines  have 
frequently  no  energizing  influence  on  our 
people.     The  defect  is  not  in  the  doctrines, 


Manual  of  Sacred  lilietoric,  25 

but  in  the  teacher.  He  presents  them  in  a 
dry,  scholastic  form,  because  he  has  never 
conceived  them  spiritually;  he  possesses 
only  an  intellectual  apprehension  of  them, 
and  he  gives  all  his  care  to  the  accurate  im- 
press of  that  apprehension  on  his  hearers. 

Note.  Great  preachers,  who  were  great  chiefly  be- 
cause they  were  men  of  prayer,  never  fell  into  such  an 
error.  Kach  divine  truth  was  to  them  not  only  an  in- 
tellectual light,  but,  much  more,  a  spiritual  force  that 
influenced  the  will  by  kindling  its  energies  into  action. 
It  was  to  them  a  living  reality,  invested  by  the  imagina- 
tion with  a  concrete  form ;  and  it  was  in  this  form  that 
they  presented  it  to  their  hearers.  See,  for  example, 
in  the  following  passage,  how  Newman  presents  the 
doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  : 

"God  in  the  Person  of  the  Word,  the  Second  Person 
of  the  All-glorious  Trinity,  humbled  Himself  to  become 
her  (Mary's)  Son.  Non  horruisti  Virginis  uterum,  as 
the  Church  sings,  'Thou  didst  not  disdain  the  Virgin's 
womb.'  He  took  the  substance  of  His  virgin  flesh  from 
her,  and  clothed  in  it  He  lay  within  her  ;  and  He  bore 
it  about  with  Him  after  birth,  as  a  sort  of  badge  and 
witness  that  He,  though  God,  was  hers.  He  was  nursed 
and  tended  by  her ;  He  was  suckled  by  her  ;  He  lay  in 
her  arms.  As  time  went  on,  He  ministered  to  her  and 
obeyed  her.  He  lived  with  her  for  thirty  years,  in  one 
house,  with  an  uninterrupted  intercourse,  and  with 
only  the  saintly  Joseph  to  share  it  with  Him.  She  was 
the  witness  of  His  growth,  of  His  joys,  of  His  sorrows, 
of  His  prayers  ;  she  was  blest  with  His  smile,  with  the 
touch  of  His  hand,  with  the  whisper  of  His  affection, 
with  the  expression  of  His  thoughts  and  His  feelings, 
for  that  length  of  time." 


26  Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric. 

Closely  allied  to  personal  holiness,  if  not 
included  in  it,  is  the  apostolic  spirit,  im- 
plying a  high  estimate  of  the  value  of  a 
soul,  combined  with  active,  untiring  zeal 
for  its  salvation.  It  is  the  spirit  that  filled 
the  apostles  after  Pentecost,  the  spirit  that 
has  baptized  the  world  in  the  blood  of  mis- 
sionaries. It  is  the  most  sublime  expres- 
sion of  fraternal  charity  and  self-sacrifice, 
for  the  priest  imbued  with  it  is  willing  to 
become  anathema  for  his  brethren.  He 
makes  himself  the  servant  of  all  to  save  all. 
Comfort,  ease,  pleasure,  wealth,  esteem  — 
all  these  he  sets  aside  to  gain  souls  to  Christ. 
He  is  a  man  of  one  idea,  one  aim,  one  life- 
purpose.  The  world  thinks  him  narrow, 
angular,  unmanageable;  it  sneers  at  his 
whole-souled  earnestness;  and  it  invents 
the  silliest  theories  to  account  for  his 
motives.  But  he  is  as  indifferent  to  the 
world^s  censure  as  he  is  to  its  allurements; 
and  he  keeps  on  straight  to  his  object,  un- 
daunted by  difficulty  or  failure,  because  he 
knows  that  his  beloved  Master  is  with  him 
and  that  he  is  doing  His  work. 

When  such  a  man  preaches,  his  words 
fall  like  rain  on  a  thirsting  soil ;  they  bring 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.  27 

hope^  and  repentance,  and  peace  to  men's 
souls.  Jesus  Christ  speaks  through  him, — 
in  me  loquitur  Christus^  —  and  because  the 
divine  Voice  is  not  impeded  by  the  self -con- 
sciousness or  self-seeking  of  the  minister, 
it  exercises  somewhat  of  the  same  sweet, 
irresistible  influence  as  that  with  which  the 
Master  taught  the  multitudes  in  the  fields 
and  villages  of  Gralilee.  Men  come  away 
from  such  a  sermon  not  with  empty  praise 
of  the  preacher,  of  his  beautiful  language, 
his  fine  elocution,  or  his  graceful  action;  — 
all  these  are  forgotten  or  unobserved  in  the 
one  thought  he  has  left  burning  in  their 
souls,  that  salvation  is  the  one  thing  neces- 
sary and  the  present  i-s  the  time  to  secure  it. 

Divine  truth  announced  by  a  preacher  of 
apostolic  spirit  is  not  minimized  or  trimmed 
to  suit  fastidious  ears.  Hell  is  eternal  fire ; 
and  sin  is  a  festering,  fetid  carcass  which 
the  sinner  carries  about  with  him;  and 
temptation  is  the  hot  breath  of  Satan  agitat- 
ing the  soul.  The  best  surgeon  is  the  one  of 
nerve,  strong  and  steady  to  use  the  scalpel 
to  save,  undeterred  by  the  patient's  agoniz- 
ing cry  to  spare. 

No  one  who  would  preach  the  Word  fit- 


28  Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric. 

tingly  and  effectively  can  dispense  with  art 
and  culture  in  the  preparation  and  dehvery 
of  his  sermon.  Yet  there  are  few  ordinary 
shortcomings  in  a  preacher  which  the  bulk 
of  the  people  will  not  either  overlook  or 
treat  with  kindly  indulgence,  if  they  see 
that  he  is  a  man  of  apostolic  zeal,  regard- 
less of  himself,  and  absorbed  heart  and  soul 
in  their  salvation.  A  drowning  man  does 
not  object  to  the  roughness  of  the  hand 
stretched  out  to  save  him.  Neither  are  we 
inclined  to  be  over-nice  about  the  kind  of 
fire  at  which  we  warm  our  numbed  fingers. 
The  sou],  too,  thirsting  after  the  strong, 
living  Grod,  will  hear  His  voice  in  the 
earnest,  ringing  tones  of  the  man  of  prayer 
and  zeal,  though  his  words  be  plain  and  un- 
studied and  his  intonation  inflected  accord- 
ing to  no  artistic  rule.  He  is,  no  doubt, 
bound  to  perfect,  by  patient,  industrious 
training,  the  faculty  of  speech  and  to  ac- 
quire a  mastery  of  graceful  and  forcible 
delivery.  Besides,  after  St.  Paul,  the  model 
of  all  apostolic  preachers,  he  should  strive 
to  become  all  things  to  all  men,  that  he 
may  save  all.  He  has  a  mission  to  the  rich 
and  cultured,  as  well  as  to  the  poor  and 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric,  29 

ignorant;  and  he  should  no  more  disgust 
the  former  by  bad  grammar  and  uncouth 
gestures,  than  he  should  daze  the  latter  by 
metaphysical  subtleties  and  Greek  quo- 
tations. Undeniable  as  all  this  is,  it  nowise 
modifies  the  fundamental  truth,  that  zeal  is 
the  soul  of  preaching ;  and,  hence,  a  priest 
possessed  of  this  one  quality  will  in  time 
work  his  way,  consciously  or  unconsciously, 
to  such  adequacy  of  expression  and  natur- 
alness of  delivery  as  will  secure  his  preach- 
ing from  being  despised  by  any  one. 

NoTB.  Zeal  for  souls  should  be  so  predominant  in 
the  character  of  a  preacher,  as  to  exclude  all  unworthy 
motives  from  the  preparation  and  delivery  of  his 
sermons.  One  of  those  motives  is  the  love  of  popu- 
larity. Popular  preachers  are  not  always  those  who  do 
most  good.  The  immediate  end  which  many  of  them 
have  in  view  is  not  the  spiritual  good  of  their  hearers, 
but  rather  to  please  the  ear  and  eye  and  imagination, 
and  to  touch  the  sensibilities.  Weeping  eyes  and  wet 
handkerchiefs  are  the  ultimate  effect  which  they  attain 
— the  principal  effect  to  which  they  aspire.  There  is  a 
luxury  in  crying  over  wickedness  in  general  which 
some  people  confound  with  true  devotion;  and  many 
popular  preachers  encourage  the  delusion.  I  do  not 
know  how  they  reconcile  their  consciences  with  such 
dereliction  of  duty.  They  may  be  in  good  faith,  but, 
de/adOy  they  do  not  preach  the  Word  of  God. 

The  influence  of  preaching  is  lessened 
very  much  and  sometimes  wholly  destroyed, 


30  Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric. 

when  it  becomes  known  that  the  preacher 
is  harsh  in  exacting  pew-rents  and  stole- 
money,  especially  if  he  has  at  the  same  time 
earned  a  character  for  miserly  living  and 
disregard  of  the  claims  of  charity.  Our 
people  contribute  hberally  without  pressure 
to  the  decent  support  of  their  clergy ;  and 
few  things  are  more  distasteful  to  them 
than  to  hear,  Sunday  after  Sunday,  in- 
temperate tirades  against  defaulting  pew- 
renters,  instead  of  the  exposition  of  the 
Gospel  to  which  they  have  a  right.  High- 
handed measures  for  collecting  church 
monies  afford  a  pretext  to  many  for  anti- 
pathy to  all  Christian  teaching,  for  murmurs 
against  the  Church  and  her  ministers,  and 
for  neglect  of  religious  duties. 

A  preacher^s  character  should  enable  him 
to  keep  in  touch  and  sympathy  with  the 
men  as  well  as  with  the  women  of  his 
audience.  A  local  church  patronized  and 
maintained  chiefly  by  the  female  sex  is 
afflicted  with  ^^dry  rot,^'  caused  to  a  great 
extent  by  the  weakness  of  the  pastor.  He 
is  effeminate  in  his  manner,  dress  and  con- 
versation; he  preaches  lackadaisical  ser- 
mons;  he  is  ^ 'sweet' ^  in  his  counsels   re- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.  31 

garding  the  higher  life;  he  is  strong  on 
Scapulars,  Rosaries,  new  devotions,  and,  in 
general,  on  the  accidents  of  religion;  but 
on  its  heart  and  essence,  on  Faith,  Hope, 
Charity,  Prudence,  Justice,  Fortitude,  and  ^ 
Temperance,  he  has  little  or  nothing  to  say. 
Men  have  an  involuntary  contempt  for  such 
a  preacher.  They  avoid  hearing  him  when- 
ever they  can  do  so  decently.  They  can- 
not look  up  to  him  as  their  superior  in  any 
manly  quality — not  even  in  good  sense ;  and 
as  to  his  preaching,  they  feel  instinctively 
that  it  is  not  primarily  intended  for  them, 
but  for  the  other  sex.  /  Manliness  of  charac-"7 
ter,  straightforwardness,  wide  knowledge 
onSe,  practical  sense  must  characterize 
every  preacher  who  would  maintain  a 
salutary  influence  over  the  male  portion  of 
his  hearers. 

Finally,  want  of  gravity  destroys  the  in- 
fluence of  many  preachers.  Known  to  make 
light  of  everything,  they  are  not  taken 
seriously  even  when  they  intend  to  be  most 
earnest  in  exhortation  or  rebuke.  People 
cannot  understand  how  men  connected  so 
intimately  as  priests  are  with  the  sublime 
mysteries  of  Redemption  and  dealing  every 


0^ 


32  Manual  of  Sacred  Elietork. 

day  with  the  tremendous  issues  of  eternal 
hfe  and  eternal  death,  are  capable  of  habit- 
ual frivolity,  of  treating  life  as  a  ^'huge 
joke/'  of  playing  Merry  Andrew  in  a  cas- 
sock. Of  course,  every  healthy-minded 
person,  be  he  priest  or  layman,  must  oc- 
casionally unbend  and  seek  relief  and  rest 
from  the  strain  of  serious  work.  And  in 
his  moments  of  relaxation  few  things  are 
better  calculated  to  give  elasticity  and  tone 
to  his  jaded  spirits  than  an  honest,  hearty 
laugh.  But  laughter  and  gayety  in  season 
are  nowise  opposed  to  the  calm  seriousness 
that  should  be  a  prominent  feature  of  the 
priestly  character.  Indeed,  a  bright,  cheer- 
ful face  and  a  genial  smile  and  a  pleasant 
word  for  every  one  win  confidence  and  love 
for  a  priest  even  from  those  who  do  not  be- 
lieve in  his  ministrations. 

Note.  To  avoid  mistakes  that  would  lessen  his  in- 
fluence as  a  preacher,  a  young  priest  should  be  orderly 
in  his  habits,  should  take  advice  before  introducing  re- 
forms, should  be  "all  eyes  and  ears,  but  no  tongue"  for 
some  time  after  coming  to  a  new  mission.  Above  all, 
he  must  manifest  no  likes  or  dislikes ;  he  must  have  no 
favorites  ;  he  must  side  with  no  cliques  or  parties  in 
his  parish. 


CHAPTER  III. 
Mental  Equipment. 

In  preparing  a  student  for  the  ministry  of 
preaching,  I  take  it  for  granted  that  he 
does  not  intend  to  preach  other  people  ^s 
sermons,  but  is  resolved  to  write  and  mem- 
orize his  own  after  serious  study  and  medita- 
tion of  the  subject  matter.  To  do  this,  his 
mind  must  be  well  furnished  with  general 
and  special  knowledge,  and  well  developed ; 
in  other  words,  he  must  be  a  well  educated 
gentleman. 

No  other  profession  demands  such  a 
thorough  training  of  its  aspirants  as  the 
Catholic  priesthood.  And  surely,  with  seven 
or  eight  years  in  a  parochial  school,  six 
years  in  the  Arts'  course,  and  six  more  in 
the  theological  seminary,  no  young  priest 
should  have  reason  to  be  diffident  of  his 
ability  to  preach  the  Grospel  worthily  to  any 
audience.  Yet  with  all  the  assiduous  care 
taken  by  the  Church  in  training  her  minis- 
(33) 


34  Manual  of  Sacred  EJietoric, 

ters,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  some  of  them 
fall  below  the  level  of  efficiency  in  their 
preaching.  The  cause  seems  to  be,  they 
either  had  not  been  fully  equipped  for  their 
work  in  the  seminary,  or  they  allow  their 
minds  to  stagnate  on  the  mission  from 
neglect  of  study. 

The  mental  equipment  necessary  for  a 
young  priest  to  enable  him  to  preach  as  he 
ought,  comprises  two  things,  knowledge 
and  development. 

1.  Knowledge.  If  a  student  who  has 
studied  diligently  to  the  end  of  his  course 
recognize  that  he  knows  very  little,  but  has 
a  strong,  efficacious  desire  and  purpose  to 
keep  on  enlarging  what  little  he  knows,  he 
satisfies  all  that  is  demanded  of  him  under 
this  head.  He  possesses  the  three  essential 
requirements  for  mental  culture,  namely, 
maturity  of  intellect,  humility,  and  thirst 
for  knowledge.  Acquaintance  with  the 
phenomena  of  nature  or  history  is  not  know- 
ledge ;  neither  is  the  memorizing  of  theses  in 
philosophy  or  theology.  Knowledge  of  any- 
thing is  the  intellectual  comprehension  of 
all  that  is  knowable  about  it.  What  is  its 
cause?     What  are  its  effects?     What  are  its 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.  35 

relations  to  other  known  things?  What  are 
its  bearings  on  life?  The  extent  to  which 
we  can  answer  these  and  other  questions  re- 
garding facts  or  truths  is  the  measure  of  the 
knowledge  we  have  of  them.  Let  a  young 
priest  fresh  from  the  seminary  test  his 
knowledge  of  any  thesis  in  philosophy  or 
theology  or  of  any  fact  of  Church  history 
by  these  questions,  and  I  think  he  will  con- 
fess candidly  that  he  has  acquired  only  the 
first  essential  element  of  all  that  the  intel- 
lectual and  practical  knowledge  of  it  com- 
prises. 

Let  him  ask,  for  example,  how  far  he  has 
studied  the  bearing  of  dogmatic  theology  on 
his  own  life.  Has  revelation  been  to  him 
only  an  illumination  of  the  intellect?  or  has 
it  been  also  a  spiritual  light  and  force,  ele- 
vating the  will,  curbing  the  passions,  and 
conforming  and  uniting  his  whole  being  to 
Grod?  Has  the  study  of  the  tract  de  Deo 
Uno  et  Trino  filled  him  with  adoration  and 
awe?  Has  his  heart  melted  in  gratitude 
and  love,  in  sorrow  and  repentance,  as  he 
read  page  after  page  de  Incarnatione?  Has 
he  trembled  with  fear  and  prayed  earnestly 
for  divine  help  and  protection,  as  moral 


36  Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric, 

theology  unfolded  to  him  the  innumerable 
forms  of  man's  rebellion  against  the  majesty 
of  his  Creator?  If  a  student  has  to  acknow- 
ledge that  he  has  never  studied  theology  in 
this  spiritual,  practical  light,  although  he 
knows  that  it  is  in  this  Hght  he  shall  have 
to  preach  it  to  the  people,  then  he  must 
admit  that,  under  this  consideration  alone, — 
the  bearing  of  theology  on  life, — his  know- 
ledge of  the  sacred  science  is  but  one  step 
removed  from  ignorance. 

Yet  he  should  not  be  discouraged.  True 
knowledge  is  a  growth  of  the  soul — a  growth 
that  is  to  reach  perfection  only  in  eternity. 
As  long,  then,  as  we  have  a  thirst  for  know- 
ledge and  give  what  time  we  can  to  satiating 
it,  we  need  not  be  anxious  about  the  pro- 
gress we  make;  the  after-life  will  supply 
whatever  deficiency  may  remain. 

It  must  not  be  inferred  from  what  I  have 
just  said,  that  I  undervalue  the  teaching  of 
sacred  sciences  in  our  seminaries.  It  is 
scarcely  reasonable  to  expect  a  professor  to 
become  a  spiritual  director  in  the  class-hall 
and  to  turn  his  lectures  into  meditations. 
The  intellectual  or  scientific  acquirement  of 
revealed  truth  is  the  basis  of  that  spiritual 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.  37 

knowledge  we  should  aim  at,  and  is,  there- 
fore, absolutely  necessary  to  every  minister 
of  the  Grospel.  But  he  must  not  confound 
the  basis  with  the  structure  he  has  to  build 
upon  it.  —  The  building  must  be  his  own 
work. 

Knowledge  of  divine  truth  must  be  part 
of  ourselves  before  we  can  impart  it  fruit- 
fully to  others:  what  we  have  made  our  own 
only  by  the  intellect,  we  can  impart  only 
to  the  intellect ;  what  we  have  brought  home 
to  our  own  conscience  and  life, — this,  and 
this  only,  we  should  bring  home  to  the 
conscience  and  life  of  our  hearer. 

To  become  an  efficient  preacher,  then,  a 
newly  ordained  priest  must  have  studied 
diligently  all  the  branches  of  sacred  science 
taught  in  the  seminary,  and  he  must  be  re- 
solved to  study  them  again  on  the  mission, 
but  from  a  more  scientific  as  well  as  from  a 
more  practical  standpoint,  and  with  a 
special  view  of  realizing  their  bearing  on  his 
moral  and  spiritual  life. 

Not:^.  This  continuation  of  ecclesiastical  studies  is 
practised  informally  by  all  priests  who  keep  alive  the 
spirit  of  their  priesthood.  They  take  a  keen  interest 
in  the  doctrinal  and  moral  questions  discussed  in  our 
clerical  Monthlies  and  Quarterlies,  and  they  speak  of 
those  questions  when  they  meet  their  fellow  priests. 


38  Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric. 

They  take  notes  of  obscure  Scripture  passages  and  con- 
sult some  standard  commentary  on  their  meaning. 
They  are  not  content  with  the  summary  of  Church 
history  which  they  studied  in  the  seminary,  but  they 
read  with  avidity  what  the  ablest  investigators  and 
writers  have  to  say  on  special  questions  or  represen- 
tative characters.  The  refining  and  elevating  influence 
of  all  this  reading  is  increased  and  spiritualized  by  the 
practical  application  they  make  of  it  to  themselves. 
Such  fragmentary  reading  is  useful  and  praiseworthy 
as  far  as  it  goes,  although  it  is  not  scienti  fie  or  scholarly. 

2.  Development.  It  is  the  office  of  an 
ecclesiastical  seminary  (in  the  intellectual 
department)  not  only  to  teach  a  certain 
amount  of  book-knowledge,  but,  what  is  of 
vastly  greater  importance,  to  cultivate  and 
develop  all  the  mental  powers,  especially 
those  that  have  the  closest  and  most  im- 
portant bearing  on  the  composition  and  de- 
livery of  a  sermon.  The  intellect  should 
be  trained  in  the  habit  of  clear,  definite 
thought;  it  should  be  familiar  with  the 
principles  and  forms  of  logic;  it  should 
seek  and  establish  order  in  everything  with 
which  it  deals ;  finally,  it  should  select  with 
propriety  and  taste  not  only  matter  for 
study  but  the  best  authors  in  which  to  study 
it.  The  memory,  the  imagination,  and  the 
feelings  require  similar  training,  although, 
as  far  as  I  know,  to  the  development  of  the 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric,  39 

last  two  little  or  no  direct  attention  is  paid 
in  the  seminary. 

a)  The  habit  of  clear  definite  thinking 
lies  at  the  root  of  all  adequate  expression  of 
thought.  It  is,  therefore,  the  fundamental 
element  in  the  expository  part  of  a  sermon 
and  in  all  catechetical  instructions.  In 
every  well  educated  mind  a  sharp  line  is 
drawn  between  knowledge  and  ignorance ; 
and  everything  obscure  or  doubtful  or  even 
probable  is  classified  with  the  unknown. 

The  vulgar  pride  of  display  leads  some  to 
talk  of  what  they  know  nothing  definitely. 
Hence  the  habit  of  rash  assertion,  of  disre- 
gard for  exact  truth,  of  wilful  deception.  I 
do  not  say  that  any  priest  would  be  influenced 
by  such  a  habit  in  the  pulpit;  but  should 
people  know  that  "il  is  his  way^'  in  his 
everyday  life,  they  lose  much  of  their  con- 
fidence in  his  preaching.  The  same  effect 
is  produced  by  those  who  wish  to  pass  for 
knowing  everything  knowable.  They  are 
found  out  sooner  or  later,  and  then  their 
influence  falls  with  a  crash. 

Mental  laziness  makes  many  satisfied 
with  fractional  knowledge.  A  student,  for 
instance,  has  an  impression  that  he  read 


40  Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

somewhere  of  a  pope  under  cruel  pressure 
signing  a  concordat  .^  with  some  emperor, 
which  concordat  attempted  to  give  away- 
some  right  or  privilege  over  which  the  pope 
had  no  control.  The  student  does  not  know 
who  was  the  pope,  who  was  the  emperor, 
what  were  the  terms  of  the  deed,  whether  it 
were  perfected  or  not,  and  in  what  year  and 
under  what  circumstances  the  transaction 
took  place.  He  has  Alzog's  and  Parsons' 
works  in  his  library,  but  he  is  too  lazy  to 
consult  either  of  them ;  and  so  he  contents 
himself  with  a  blurred  impression  instead 
of  definite  knowledge  of  an  important  his- 
torical fact. 

b)  The  principles  and  forms  of  logic. 
Some  hold  that  a  sermon  ought  to  be  a 
syllogism  in  disguise.  If  this  be  so,  it  is 
evident  that  a  preacher  should  be  intimately 
familiar  with  the  use  of  this  form  of  ar- 
gument and  should  know  when  and  how  to 
vary  it  by  the  substitution  of  one  or  other 
of  its  modifications.  But  whether  we  use 
the  deductive  or  the  inductive  method  of 
exposition,  practical  knowledge  of  logic  and 
masterly  skill  in  the  use  of  it  are  most  de- 
sirable, if  not  necessary,  in  every  priest. 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.  41 

Besides,  it  is  only  by  our  intimate  ac- 
quaintance with  its  principles  and  rules  that 
we  shall  be  able  to  detect  and  expose  the 
fallacies  that  underlie  all  doctrinal  error. 
There  are  now  few  parishes  in  this  country 
in  which  honest-minded,  truth-seeking  men, 
weary  of  being  carried  about  by  every  wind 
of  doctrine,  do  not  apply  to  our  priests  for 
instruction.  Hence  the  grave  duty  of  being 
prepared  not  only  to  support  the  truths  of 
Catholic  faith  by  valid  arguments,  but  also 
to  point  out  the  weakness  of  objections 
urged  against  it.  Neither  of  these  can  be 
done  without  practical  skill  in  the  art  of 
reasoning. 

NoTK.  At  the  risk  of  being  thought  behind  the  time, 
I  venture  to  say  that  the  old  scholastic  method  of 
teaching  was  incomparably  superior  to  the  shallow  one 
now  in  use,  for  the  purpose  of  making  students  exact, 
profound  and  consecutive  in  the  habit  of  reasoning. 
The  syllogism,  like  the  first  element  of  every  art,  may 
be  easily  turned  into  ridicule  ;  but  the  first  element  has 
to  be  learned  for  all  that. 

c)  Order.  The  trained  intellect  always 
works  for  order — order  in  its  ideas,  its  judg- 
ments and  its  reasoning,  order  in  the  em- 
ployment of  time,  order  in  the  arrangement 
of  surroundings, — order  in  everything.  This 
habit  of  order  is  invaluable  to  a  priest,  as  it 


42  Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric. 

leads  him  to  adopt  the  best  means  of  utiHz- 
ing  odds  and  ends  of  time  between  ministe- 
rial duties.  Five  minutes  may  count  for 
little  in  themselves;  but  by  reading  the 
Bible  consecutively,  five  minutes  daily,  the 
whole  of  the  Old  Testament  would  be  gone 
through  in  a  year,  and  in  a  little  over  three 
months  more,  the  New  Testament  also.  A 
priest  of  well-ordered  mind  has  a  keen  per- 
ception of  the  value  of  such  uniform  work, 
and  he  does  it  with  steady,  resolute  per- 
severance. He  is  a  stranger  to  ennui;  he 
has  not  to  take  to  novel-reading,  or  to  yawn- 
ing his  mornings  over  the  newspaper,  or  to 
paying  unnecessary  visits,  to  kill  time.  He 
finds  every  day  not  minutes  but  hours  to 
devote  to  study  or  writing,  and  at  the  end 
of  a  year,  he  has  acquired  a  breadth  and 
depth  of  knowledge  and  attained  an  intel- 
lectual and  spiritual  culture  such  as  his 
neighbor  of  desultory  reading  and  unorderly 
habits  has  never  dreamt  of. 

It  may  be  thought  that  a  studious  life  is 
incompatible  with  the  active  duties  of  the 
ministry,  and  that  financial  worry  —  the 
cross  of  most  American  priests — unfits  them 
to  apply  their  minds  to  any  serious  system- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric,  43 

atic  reading,  On  the  contrary,  the  habit  of 
of  which  I  speak  regulates  and  perfects  the 
discharge  of  duty,  inasmuch  as  it  keeps 
clearly  before  the  mind  what  is  to  be  done 
and  how  it  is  to  be  done.  Besides,  most  of 
the  distress  caused  by  worry  comes  through 
the  confused,  dazed  way  in  which  people 
look  at  it  and  bear  it.  In  trying  emergen- 
cies, it  is  easier  to  appreciate  than  to  prac- 
tise coolness,  self-possession,  calm  considera- 
tion of  ^'ways  and  means,  ^'  and,  as  a  last 
resort,  patient  endurance;  yet  it  is  certain 
that  the  habit  of  order  in  other  things  will 
help  us  here  also. 

It  will  help  us  in  another  way  too,  by 
systematizing  our  reading — making  it  a  con- 
tinuous study  of  each  subject,  or,  at  least, 
of  a  division  of  each  subject,  before  we  take 
up  new  matter.  Of  course,  it  is  all  the 
better  if  a  priest  so  arrange  his  free  time 
that,  each  day,  so  much  of  it  will  be  given 
to  Sacred  Scripture,  so  much  to  theology, 
etc.  This  arrangement  has  the  advantage 
of  variety  and  is  none  the  less  attractive  for 
being  in  line  with  the  daily  routine  of  the 
seminary.  Unity  or  diversity  of  subject, 
however,  for  daily  reading  may  be  left  to 


44  Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric. 

each  one's  choice;  the  main  point  is  con- 
tinuity— perseverance.  To  secure  this,  it  is 
most  advisable  that  a  young  priest  should 
begin  with  short,  interesting  subjects  and 
give  to  each  even  less  time  than  he  can 
afford  and  is  inclined  to  give.  In  this  way 
the  love  of  study  is  whetted  and  the  habit  of 
it,  as  it  grows  stronger,  has  room  for  larger 
development. 

d)  Judgment  in  selection  of  subjects  and 
authors.  Common  sense  ought  to  make 
every  professional  man  see  the  necessity  of 
becoming  proficient  in  all  the  knowledge 
essential  to  his  calling,  before  he  takes  up 
studies  either  foreign  to  it  or  only  remotely 
connected  with  it.  Hence  a  priest's  first 
study  ought  to  be  to  acquire  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  Sacred  Scripture,  theology, 
Church  history,  and  canon  law.  It  ought, 
indeed,  to  be  his  only  regular  study,  be- 
cause the  longest  life  is  too  short  to  com- 
plete it. 

^ 'But  what  of  philosophy?' '  you  will  ask ; 
^'what  of  science?  of  literature?  of  current 
history?  of  local  affairs?  Is  it  not  the 
duty  of  the  priest,  as  of  every  citizen,  to 
keep  in  touch  with  the  thought  and  action 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric,  45 

of  his  day?  Is  he  justified  in  isolating  him- 
self from  the  multiform  life  of  the  world 
around  him — he  who  is  appointed  to  mould 
that  life  and  to  direct  it  to  its  supernatural 
endr' 

In  reply,  I  say  that  I  am  speaking  here 
only  of  the  adequate  training  of  the  intel- 
lect in  seminaries  and  its  results  on  the 
mission.  One  of  those  results  should  be 
the  judicious  selection  of  subjects  and 
authors  for  a  systematic  course  of  study 
with  a  special  view  to  preparation  for  the 
pulpit.  Outside  this  course  much  literary 
work  remains  to  be  done,  as  the  preceeding 
questions  imply;  but  the  scope  of  this 
chapter  does  not  call  for  discussion  of  them 
here. 

Only  the  best  works  on  the  subjects  se- 
lected ought  to  be  studied.  A  young  priest 
can  easily  learn  which  are  those  books  by 
inquiry  of  his  former  professors.  A  small 
but  choice  collection  of  works  is  much 
better  than  a  large  and  miscellaneous  one, 
as  the  latter  offers  too  many  temptations  to 
unsystematic  and  fragmentary  reading. 

e)  Memory.  Whatever  some  psycholo- 
gists tell  us  to  the  contrary,  we  know  from 


46  Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

experience  that  a  good  memory  can  be 
acquired  by  assiduous  practice.  Class- 
exercises  and  sermons  during  the  seminary 
course  would  seem  not  to  supply  sufficient 
training  for  this  faculty,  as  the  majority  of 
young  priests  undergo  positive  pain  in  com- 
mitting to  memory  what  they  write  for  de- 
livery. Hence,  many  of  them  soon  give  up 
the  practice  of  memorizing,  except  oc- 
casionally when  they  have  to  preach  a  set 
sermon.  They  find  it  easier  to  talk  than 
to  preach,  and,  having  no  cogent  stimilus 
to  the  harder  work,  they  naturally  abandon 
it. 

I  think  students  with  defective  memories 
would  be  helped  very  much,  if  greater  ac- 
curacy in  the  repetition  of  Scripture  texts 
and  other  quotations  were  severely  enforced 
in  seminaries.  Besides,  such  students  ought 
to  be  taken  in  hand  individually;  the 
reasons  for  acquiring  a  good  memory  ought 
to  be  explained  to  them ;  and  they  ought 
to  have  daily  exercises  given  them,  until 
they  can  easily  remember  what  they  read 
after  a  few  repetitions. 

f)  Imagination.  This  function  of  the 
soul  sometimes  seems  to  work  independently 


Mamml  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.  47 

of  will-control,  as  in  dreams,  reveries,  dis- 
tractions, etc.  When  it  works  in  this  way, 
it  is  called  the  passive  imagination;  Ascetic 
writers  lay  down  wise  rules  for  the  restraint 
of  its  most  troublesome  tendency,  namely, 
distractions  in  prayer.  If  those  rules  be 
observed  faithfully,  besides  the  spiritual  be- 
nefits that  will  be  secured,  the  mind  will  be 
very  much  strengthened,  and  much  pre- 
cious time  will  be  saved.  It  is,  however, 
not  to  the  training  of  the  passive,  but  of 
the  active,  ima^inatioj^  I_  wish  to  direct 
attention  here. 

The  active,  or  constructive,  imagination 
is  the  art-faculty  of  the  soul.  It  is  also  in- 
dispensible  in  science  for  the  invention  of 
those  theories  that  frequently  lead  to  the 
discovery  and  establishment  of  new  physi- 
cal laws.  Hence  it  is  aesthetic  and  scient- 
ific, —  aesthetic,  when  its  object  is  the  ex- 
pression of  the  Beautiful,  scientific,  when 
it  is  used  for  the  investigation  of  the  True. 
I  speak  of  it  jwe  .only  in  its  aesthetic 
aspect.^  ^~"~" 

St.  Augustine ^s  theory  of  preaching  is, 
that  it  should  teach,  that  it  should  please, 
that  it  should  move ;  that  is,  it  should  teach 


u- 


e> 


48  Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

the  intellect  by  exposition,  it  shouldjDlease. 
the  imagination  by  illustration,;  and  it 
should  move  the  will  by  persuasion.  For 
the  essential  purpose  of  a  sermon,  it  is  not 
enough  to  make  a  doctrine  or  duty  clear  to 
the  understanding ;  it  must  be  made  to  ap- 
pear also  pleasant,  attractive,  useful,  beau- 
tiful ;  and  this  is  done  chiefly  by  appeal  to 
the  imagination.  This  appeal  is  made  by 
examples,  comparisons,  analogies,  figures, 
i/  y  etc. ;  and  its  usual  literary  form  is  nar- 
ration or  description. 

The  only  formal  training  of  the  imagina- 
tion attempted  in  seminaries,  as  far  as  I 
know,  is  the  compositio  loci^  and  application 
of  the  senses,  recommended  to  students  as 
a  help  to  meditation.  How  faithfully  this 
recommendation  is  carried  out,  it  does  not 
belong  to  me  to  say, — videant  consules;  but 
no  mental  exercise  develops  the  faculty  of 
expression ;  and  it  is  expression  —  style  — 
taste  that  gives  the  crowning  grace  and 
beauty  to  every  aesthetic  creation  or  repro- 
duction of  the  imagination.  —  I  cannot  say 
that  our  young  priests  show'  in  their  first 
sermons  any  adequate  training  in  the  taste- 
ful, finished  expression  of  imaginative  con- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric.  49 

ceptions.j  They  may  have  learned  it  years 
ago;  but  through  want  of  practice  they 
seem  to  have  forgotten  it. 

g)  The  feehngs.  Only  men  of  strong 
feeling  can  be  orators.  One  who  is  un- 
moved by  sorrow  or  suffering  is  incapable 
of  moving  others  to  sympathy  with  it.  A 
cold,  cynical  disposition  can  no  more  en- 
kindle enthusiasm  than  an  icicle  can  warm 
a  room. 

Strong  feeling  is  found  only  in  sensitive 
organizations.  Its  manifestation  may  be 
repressed  by  a  strong  will;  but,  all  the 
same,  it  cuts  into  the  soul.  Sensitiveness, 
however,  may  become  blunted  like  a  knife- 
edge  ;  and  when  this  happens,  not  only  our 
emotional  consciousness  is  dulled,  but  our 
power  of  emotional  expression  is  corres- 
pondingly weakened .  Extensive  indulgence 
of  the  appetites,  unrefined  surroundings, 
egotism  and  all  forms  of  selfishness  —  these 
are  some  of  the  infl^uences  that  weaken  or 
destroy  the  strong,  keen-edged  feelings 
which  enter  into  the  equipment  of  every 
efficient  preacher. 

If  a  young  priest  try  earnestly,  by  the 
use  of  what  time  he  can  spare,  to  attain  the 


50 


Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric. 


knowledge  and  mental  equipment  here  out- 
lined, his  sermons  will  become  year  by- 
year  more  effective  and  fruitful  —  more 
luminous  in  exposition  and  illustration, 
more  fervid  in  their  appeal  to  the  feelings, 
more  powerful  in  their  influence  on  the 
will. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
Faculty  of  Expression. 

Speech  is  the  ordinary  means  by  which 
we  convey  to  others  what  we  think  and  feel. 
It  is  supplemented  and  perfected  by  gesture 
which  ^  ^includes  all  significant  movements 
of  the  body  and  limbs,  and  the  expression 
of  the  countenance.''  Hence,  speech  and 
gesture  combine  to  make  up  ideal  expres- 
sion ;  and  theoretic  knowledge  of  both  as 
well  as  practical  skill  in  their  use,  is  ab- 
solutely necessary  for  every  accompUshed 
public  speaker. 

1.  Speech.  The  time  is  now  past  when 
zeal  and  necessity  excused  the  use  of 
^ ^broken  English''  in  preaching.  Every 
workman  is  supposed  to  know  how  to  select 
and  use  the  tools  of  his  trade.  Words  are 
the  preacher's  tools:  he  should,  therefore, 
have  an  intimate  knowledge  of  their  mean- 
ing, and  the  correct,  scholarly  use  of  them 
should  be  to  him  like  a  second  nature. 
(51) 


52  Manual  oj  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

The  study  of  the  vernacular  is,  then,  a 
strict  duty  for  all  those  who  aspire  to  preach 
the  Word.  Such  study  is  intimately  as- 
sociated with  the  habit  of  clear  thinking  and 
a  sincere  love  of  truth.  If,  through  mental 
laziness,  we  content  ourselves  with  vague 
and  confused  ideas,  we  cannot  see  the 
necessity,  when  we  give  them  expression, 
of  choosing  among  several  words  of  cognate 
meaning  any  one  in  preference  to  the 
others;— we  take  the  first  that  occurs  to  us. 
So,  too,  if  we  have  no  care  whether  or  not 
we  convey  our  ideas  accurately  to  others, — 
whether  or  not  we  exaggerate  or  in  any  way 
deviate  from  the  truth,  —  we  shall  take  no 
trouble  to  select  words  suited  to  give  clear 
and  definite  expression  to  the  corresponding 
ideas  in  our  minds.  On  the  other  hand, 
one  who  thinks  clearly  and  speaks  as  he 
thinks,  will  so  choose  his  words  that  they 
will  be  the  exact  reflex  of  his  thoughts. 

A  preacher  is  limited  in  his  sermons  to 
the  vocabulary  of  his  hearers;  and  even 
from  this  he  must  exclude  slang  as  well  as 
vulgar  words  and  expressions.  The  diffi- 
culty of  exposition  and  persuasion  is  very 
much  increased  by  this  limitation.      It  is 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.  53 

not  only  necessary  to  have  a  clear  and 
distinct  apprehension  of  the  truths  to  be 
taught,  and  to  have  appropriate  words  for 
their  conveyance ;  but  those  words  must  be 
intelligible  to  the  particular  audience  ad- 
dressed . 

To  use  words  correctly  in  preaching,  a 
student  or  priest  must  have  acquired  the 
habit  of  using  them  correctly  in  ordinary 
conversation.  Slang  and  vulgar  words  are 
odious  violations  of  good  taste ;  but,  worse 
still,  their  daily  use  is  a  serious  hindrance 
to  extempore  discourse.  They  are  the  first 
words  that  will  present  themselves;  and 
while  we  search  for  others,  more  dignified 
and  appropriate,  we  have  to  pause,  or 
stammer,  or  flounder,  until  we  think  of  sub- 
stitutes. And  even  these,  in  most  cases, 
will  be  found  to  be  as  inadequate  or  as  un- 
scholarly  as  the  others  were  unbecoming. 
So  that  generally  we  steer  from  Scylla  to 
be  wrecked  on  Charybdis. 

Worse,  perhaps,  than  slang  and  vul- 
garisms, are  learned  and  technical  words, 
beyond  the  comprehension  of  the  people. 
The  former  convey  some  meaning ;  the  lat- 
ter, none  whatsoever.   Yet  there  is  no  more 


54  Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

prevalent  fault  to  be  found  in  sermons  than 
the  use  of  such  words.  Sermon-books, 
both  original  and  translated,  abound  in 
them, 

Ilyl^USTRATlON.  Here  are  some  words  met  in  the  first 
three  pages  of  a  sermon  on  Detraction  :  premeditated, 
indiscriminate y  sooth,  species^  irretrievably ,  balefuly 
primary,  indispensible,  votive,  accession  of  circum- 
stances, aggravation.  The  preacher  in  this  case  was 
the  more  inexcusable,  as  his  audience  was  made  up 
mostly  of  the  poor  and  uneducated.  It  is  evident  that 
with  a  little  trouble  he  might  have  found  equivalent 
homely  terms  or  phrases  to  use  instead  of  the  foregoing 
words  ;  and  it  is  certain  from  his  well  known  zeal  that 
he  would  have  done  so,  had  he  reflected  on  the  larger 
good  he  would  do  thereby.  The  oratorical  instinct 
leads  every  true  preacher  to  determine  unconsciously 
the  calibre  of  his  audience  and  to  adapt  his  words  to 
it.  But  not  every  one  who  thinks  his  sermons  worthy 
of  publication  is  gifted  with  the  oratorical  instinct. 

Many  preachers  never  reflect  that  their 
words  are  beyond  the  comprehension  of 
their  audience ;  some  are  too  lazy  to  change 
theological  into  popular  phraseology ;  while 
others  who  try  to  make  the  change  do  not 
succeed  on  account  of  their  limited  voca- 
bulary. Extensive  reading  and  frequent 
writing  on  doctrinal  and  moral  themes  can 
do  much  to  remedy  this  defect  in  our  ser- 
mons; but  reading  and  writing  must  be 
supplemented  with  the  study  of  words  in- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.  55 

dividually  and  in  their  relations  to  their 
synonyms  and  antonyms. 

Every  language  is  a  growth,  depending 
for  its  conditions  on  the  growth  of  the 
nation  speaking  it.  For  centuries  after  the 
Norman  Conquest  (A.  D.  1066),  Anglo- 
Saxon,  the  mother  of  our  present  speech? 
was  spoken  only  by  the  English  peasantry 
and  yeomanry,  the  language  of  the  court 
and  the  nobility  being  Norman  -  French, 
mostly  made  up  of  Latin  words.  Political 
events,  however,  brought  the  conqueror  and 
the  conquered  more  and  more  closely  to- 
gether, until  they  became  blended  in  one 
strong,  self-reliant,  independent  people. 
This  union  naturally  involved  the  corres- 
ponding union  of  the  Latin  patois  of  the 
Norman  with  the  original  Anglo-Saxon. 
The  result  was  the  formation  of  the  English 
language.  Hence,  the  first  notable  stage 
in  the  growth  of  this  language  of  ours  was 
the  accession  to  it,  or  rather  its  absorption, 
of  a  large  number  of  Norman-Latin  words. 
Some  centuries  afterwards,  a  custom  began, 
arising  in  many  cases  from  necessity,  but 
in  more  from  pedantry,  of  anglicising  and 
introducing  words  directly  from  the  original 


56  Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric. 

Latin.  Thus  we  have  English  words  taken, 
some  directly,  some  indirectly,  from  the 
language  of  ancient  Rome ;  and  even  many 
are  taken  in  both  ways  from  the  same  root. 
Of  these  latter  I  give  a  few  examples  from 
Trenches  ^'English,  Past  and  Present. '^ 

^^  Secure  and  sure^  both  from  the  Latin 
securus^  but  one  directly,  the  other  through 
the  French;  fidelity  and  fealty ^  both  from 
the  hsLtin  fidelis ^  but  one  directly,  the  other 
at  second-hand ;  species  and  spice^  both  from 
the  Latin  species y  spices  being  properly  only 
kinds  of  aromatic  drugs;  hlaspJieme  and 
hlamCy  both  from  hlasphemare^  but  hlame 
immediately  from  the  French  hlamer;  add 
to  these  granary  and  garner;  tradition  and 
treason ;^^  etc.  A  fuller  list  than  Trench's 
may  be  found  in  Morris's  Historical  English 
Grammar,  p.  5. 

Other  languages  also  have  contributed 
some  words;  and,  within  the  present  cen- 
tury, Grreek  has  been  largely  drawn  on  for 
terms  of  science,  art  and  manufacture. 
Latin,  however,  has  been  always  the  chief 
source  from  which  English  has  been  en- 
riched. 

Now,  Norman-French  words  have  been 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.  57 

so  long  incorporated  with  the  spoken  lan- 
guage of  the  people,  that  a  preacher  may 
use  them  freely  without  much  danger  of 
obscurity  or  misunderstanding.  But  this 
cannot  be  said  of  words  taken  directly  either 
from  Latin  or  G-reek,  unless  they  be  popular 
names  for  familiar  things  or  ideas.  Hence, 
in  choosing  words  for  use  in  the  pulpit,  it 
is  of  much  advantage  to  know  not  only  the 
origin,  or  root,  of  the  word,  but  also  the 
manner  of  its  introduction  into  the  language. 
Some  years  ago,  an  impression  prevailed 
among  preachers,  that  the  dignity  of  the 
pulpit  did  not  allow  the  use  of  homely 
terms,  when  statelier  ones  could  be  found 
to  replace  them.  Those  men  changed 
fatherly  into  paternal^  brotherly  into  fra- 
ternal, ask  into  interrogate,  bury  into  commit 
to  earth,  etc.  Such  affectation  is  now  dis- 
carded, if  not  despised ;  and  the  dignity  of 
the  pulpit  depends  chiefly  on  the  earnestness 
of  the  preacher  and  the  amount  of  spiritual 
good  his  preaching  confers  on  the  people. 
Besides,  a  homely  word  of  reputable  stand- 
ing differs  widely  from  a  vulgar  one.  There 
is  no  sacrifice  of  the  laws  of  diction  or  of 
good  taste  in  the  use  of  words  ' 'perfumed 


58  Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

with  home  associations.''  ^^ Saxon  deriva- 
tives/' writes  Grenung  (Practical  Rhetoric, 
p.  44),  ^ ^constitute  the  foundation  of  the 
language.  Being  the  earliest  words,  they 
stand  for  the  primitive  ideas :  they  are  the 
words  of  the  family  and  the  home  and  the 
everyday  relations  of  life.  They  are 
therefore  the  natural  terms  for  common  in- 
tercourse, for  simple  and  direct  emotions, 
for  strong  and  hearty  sentiments.  Saxon 
is  especially  the  language  of  strength ;  and 
its  short  words,  and  sturdy  sounds  join 
well  with  its  homely  meanings  to  give  it 
impress  and  cogency." 

A  preacher  should  never  be  led  by  vulgar 
usage  to  employ  words  in  a  sense  not  given 
them  by  good  writers.  NicCy  splendid^  finCy 
guess,  with  many  others,  have  each  a  pre- 
cise meaning,  and  this  alone  should  be 
attached  to  them.  Nothing  in  English 
composition  or  speech  evinces  culture  and 
scholarship  more  than  taste  and  accuracy 
in  the  selection  and  use  of  words. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  here  to  give  a  few 
suggestions  on  the  arrangement  of  words 
in  sentences. 

Simple  sentences,  being  the  most  direct 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric,  59 

and  the  most  easily  understood,  are  the  best 
suited  for  preaching.  However,  to  give 
variety  as  well  as  smoothness  to  style,  they 
should  be  intermixed  with  sentences  of 
other  kinds.  These  should  be  short,  and, 
if  complex,  not  more  than  one  subordinate 
conjunction  should  be  used.  Few  things 
are  so  bewildering  to  an  audience  as  to  hear 
a  long  sentence  with  dependent  clauses  in- 
troduced by  if  when,  although,  whereas, 
nevertheless,  etc. 

Compound  sentences  are  made  up  of  two 
or  more  simple  sentences  joined  by  coor- 
dinate conjunctions  (aw6^,  or,  hut,  therefore). 
They  are  not  much  used  in  popular  con- 
versation, and  therefore  should  be  intro- 
duced sparingly  into  sermons.  Besides,  if 
they  contain  several  members,  they  tire  the 
attention  of  the  hearer  and  probably  pre- 
judice him  against  the  preacher.  In  refer- 
ence to  attention,  the  following  words  of 
Herbert  Spencer  convey  a  useful  lesson: 
^  'A  reader  or  listener  has  at  each  moment 
but  a  limited  amount  of  mental  power  avail- 
able. To  recognize  and  interpret  the  sym- 
bols presented  to  him  requires  part  of  this 
power ;  to  arrange  and  combine  the  images 


60  Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric. 

suggested  requires  a  further  part ;  and  only 
that  part  which  remains  can  be  used  for 
realizing  the  thought  conveyed.  Hence, 
the  more  time  and  attention  it  takes  to  re- 
ceive and  understand  each  sentence,  the  less 
time  and  attention  can  be  given  to  the  con- 
tained idea ;  and  the  less  vividly  will  that 
idea  be  conceived.'' 

Keeping  this  principle  in  mind,  we  should 
reflect,  before  using  lengthy  complex  or 
compound  sentences,  how  much  mental 
power  for  absorbing  our  ideas  will  be  left 
to  the  audience,  after  they  have  expended 
the  necessary  amount  on  the  interpretation 
of  our  words  and  on  the  arrangement  and 
combination  of  images  produced  by  them. 

To  acquire  a  free,  easy  style  adapted  to 
the  pulpit,  a  student  should  read  much,  and 
he  should  write  much. 

a)  As  to  reading  for  style,  he  should 
attend  more  to  the  form  than  to  the  matter. 
His  chief  study  must  be  to  find,  not  what 
the  author  says,  but  how  he  says  it.  Hence, 
the  reading  of  newspapers  and  novels  is 
rarely  of  any  service  in  the  literary  culture 
of  young  people.  They  look  directly  and 
primarily  for  news  to  the  former  and  for 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.  61 

the  denouement  of  the  plot  to  the  latter; 
and  in  neither  case  do  they  take  any  serious 
note  of  the  diction  or  the  style  of  what  they 
read. 

Even  students  who  have  gone  through  a 
full  course  of  rhetoric  should  read  the  mat- 
ter again  with  the  view  of  adapting  its  prin- 
ciples and  rules  to  the  composition  of  a 
sermon.  It  would  add  very  much  to  the 
utility  of  this  reading  to  study  in  connexion 
with  it  some  classical  works  exemplifying 
the  different  forms  of  prose  composition, — 
description,  narration,  exposition,  argumen- 
tation and  persuasion. 

Note.  Narration  relates  events;  description  pour- 
trays  objects ;  exposition  analyzes  truths  ;  argumen- 
tation proves  them;  persuasion  aims  at  embodying  them 
in  action.  No  literary  work  is  written  exclusively  in 
any  of  these  forms  ;  but  as  a  composition  uses  one  or 
other  of  them  principally,  it  is  called  narrative  or 
expository,  argumentative  or  persuasive.  All  five 
forms  are  used  in  preaching ;  although,  as  we  shall  see 
hereafter,  the  argumentative  is  not  to  be  used  in  an 
ordinary  Sunday  sermon. 

b)  Writing.  Caput  est  quamplurimum 
scrihere^  is  a  well  known  saying  of  Quintil- 
ian.  Rules  and  suggestions  for  preaching 
are  useless,  unless  they  are  put  in  practice ; 
and  this  is  done  by  frequent  writing.  Origi- 


62  Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

nal  composition  is  the  exercise  of  a  certain 
creative  power  with  which  every  human 
soul  is  endowed.  It  is  the  only  road  to 
literary  perfection;  and  without  it,  there 
can  be  little  effective  preaching.  There 
are,  no  doubt,  fluent  speakers  who  do  not 
write;  but  fluency  is  not  eloquence;  and 
unless  young  priests  write  for  a  consider- 
able time  after  their  ordination,  there  may 
be  brilliant  passages,  but  there  will  be  no 
artistic  finish  or  beauty,  in  their  discourse. 
It  will  lack  dignity,  self-restraint,  matured 
thought,  measured  expression ;  it  will  run 
into  tiresome  digressions,  and  be  too  de- 
tailed in  some  parts,  too  meagre  in  others. 

It  is  most  important  that  the  habit  of 
frequent,  if  not  daily,  writing  should  be 
kept  up  by  ecclesiastical  students  while 
reading  philosophy  and  theology.  Perhaps 
no  easier  or  more  useful  means  for  doing 
this  could  be  found  than  to  write  a  para- 
phrase of  a  chapter  of  the  Bible  every  day. 

The  training  of  the  voice  is  a  necessary 
condition  of  all  effective  speech.  A  harsh, 
grating,  unmusical  voice  spoils  the  delivery 
of  the  most  eloquent  words.  It  pains  an 
audience  to  listen  to  it ;  and  they  will  not 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.  63 

listen  to  it  when  they  can  decently  avoid 
it.  The  human  voice  in  its  normal  state  is 
clear,  musical,  expressive;  but,  like  all 
divine  gifts,  it  must  not  be  neglected  or 
abused.  Any  practice  known  to  be  in- 
jurious to  it  ought  to  be  abandoned.  Ha- 
bitual excess  in  any  external  form  tells  on 
it  very  quickly,  destroying  that  full,  rich 
resonance  which  gives  it  its  sweetness  and 
expressiveness. 

Singing  is  an  important  help  to  voice  de- 
velopment. Hence,  the  class  of  sacred 
chant  in  the  seminary  should  not  be  shirked, 
as  it  sometimes  is,  on  the  plea  of  no  time, 
no  voice,  no  ear  or  taste  for  music.  The 
exercise  of  the  vocal  organs,  no  matter  how 
imperfectly  performed,  will  gradually  de- 
velop their  flexibility  and  will  produce  that 
purity  and  fulness  of  tone  in  the  pronunci- 
ation of  the  vowels  which  is  so  essential  in 
all  impressive  and  emotional  speech. 

A  more  systematic  training  of  the  voice 
than  singing  consists  in  daily  exercises  in 
the  two  general  divisions  of  elocution; 
namely,  orthoepy,  or  the  mechanical  element, 
and  expression,  or  the  spiritual  element. 

Orthoepy  treats  of  articulation,  syllabi- 


64  Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

cation  and  accent.  Articulation  gives  their 
proper  sounds  to  vowels  and  consonants ; 
syllabication  regulates  the  distinct  utterance 
of  syllables ;  while  accent  is  the  special  stress 
or  force  given  to  a  syllable  in  a  pollysyllabic 
word. 

Note.  Violations  of  orthoepy  are  unfortunately 
sometimes  committed  in  the  pulpit.  An'  is  heard  for 
and,  vide  for  wide,  virchoo  for  virtue;  so  also, 
extr'arnWy  for  extraordinary,  inis'rable  for  miserable, 
etc. 

Expression  is  taken  here  to  mean  the  per- 
fect vocal  conveyance  of  thought  and  feel- 
ing. Its  agencies  are:  emphasis,  inflection, 
modulation,  slur,  monotone,  personation, 
and  pauses.  As  it  does  not  fall  within  the 
scope  of  this  work  to  teach  the  principles 
of  elocution,  I  will  not  occupy  the  reader's 
time  by  explaining  these  different  elements 
of  vocal  expression.  Any  standard  treatise 
on  the  art  of  speaking  will  give  the  student 
all  necessary  information  about  them ;  but 
he  must  remember,  that  the  fullest  know- 
ledge of  the  principles  and  rules  of  elocution 
is  useless  without  practice.  For  this  a 
teacher  is  almost  a  necessity,  as  it  is  very 
difficult  to  learn  from  books  alone  how 
most  of  the  excercises  are  to  be  performed. 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric .  65 

Still  practise  by  one's  self  can  do  much,  if 
it  be  slow,  regular,  and  graduated.  The 
mere  effort  to  vary  the  voice  according  to 
the  laws  of  expression,  even  though  un- 
successful, is  a  step  toward  perfection. 

2.  Gesture.  There  is  no  good  preaching 
without  gesture.  It  is  as  necessary  to  a 
sermon  as  correct  pronunciation,  emphasis, 
or  modulation.  It  should  be  natural,  grace- 
ful, appropriate,  and,  above  all.  Un- 
conscious, In  ideal  gesture,  the  movement 
of  the  hand  or  other  member  should  be  as 
little  attended  to  as  the  movement  of  the 
breath  or  the  action  of  the  vocal  organs. 
Hence,  gesture  ought  to  be  practised  every 
day  until  it  becomes  a  second  nature.  But 
by  what  standard  of  gesture  is  the  young 
preacher  to  be  guided!  Delsarte's  system 
seems  to  be  the  best,  because  it  is  the  least 
conventional  and  is  the  only  one,  as  far  as 
I  know,  that  is  grounded  on  the  natural 
laws  of  expression.  We  must,  however, 
distinguish  carefully  between  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  Delsarte's  theory  and 
their  development  by  his  disciples.  More- 
over, it  is  necessary  to  remember  that  those 
principles  were  intended    as  a  basis    for 


66  Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric. 

music  and  the  drama  as  well  as  for  oratory ; 
much  judgment  is,  therefore,  required  to 
adapt  them  wisely  for  the  guidance  of 
bodily  motion  and  expression  in  preaching. 

Physical  exercise  is  as  important  as  the 
study  of  gesture  to  acquire  that  easy,  grace- 
ful movement  of  the  body,  so  necessary  for 
good  delivery.  Walking  and  dumb-bell 
practice  are  the  two  most  useful  forms  in 
which  physical  exercise  can  be  taken.  A 
good  walker  is  always  a  graceful  walker; 
and  it  will  be  to  the  young  preacher's  ad- 
vantage to  study  and  imitate  his  poise  and 
carriage .  Dumb-bell  practice  gives  freedom , 
suppleness  and  grace  to  the  movements  of 
the  arms  and  torso.  It  should  be  per- 
formed regularly,  and  the  bells  used  should 
be  light,  as  the  object  to  be  attained  is  not 
to  acquire  the  muscular  development  of  a 
prizefighter.  This  exercise,  however,  should 
be  backed  up  with  the  practice  of  using  the 
hands  and  arms  gracefully.  In  the  pulpit 
these  members  will  move  with  ease  and 
propriety  or  stifly  and  awkwardly,  just  as 
we  have  previously  trained  them  by  as- 
siduous practice. 

Until  a  young  preacher  feels  confident 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.  67 

that  he  has  mastered  any  particular  form  of 
gesture  —  concentric,  eccentric,  normal  — 
he  should  not  attempt  to  use  it  in  the  pul- 
pit. It  is  much  better  to  be  natural  and 
earnest  until,  without  conscious  effort,  he 
can  be  something  better. 

The  study  of  gesture  and  of  elocution 
generally  has  a  tendency  to  make  one's 
manner  in  the  pulpit  appear  self-conscious 
and  affected.  Even  some  preachers  have 
the  bad  taste  of  delivering  their  sermons 
with  tricks  and  movements  belonging  to 
the  stage.  They  start  back;  crouch  in  fear; 
spring  up  in  rage, —  reminding  one  forcibly 
of  an  immemorial  street  performance  in 
which  the  domestic  troubles  of  a  married 
couple  are  represented.  They  profane  the 
pulpit  who  preach  to  win  applause  —  to 
gratify  personal  vanity.  What  a  contrast 
between  them  striking  theatrical  attitudes 
and  St.  Ambrose,  thrilled  with  the  Spirit  of 
Grod,  preaching  that  sermon  which  con- 
verted the  young  Manichean  rhetorician 
into  the  greatest  of  the  church  Fathers! 
But  apart  from  the  few  who  make  the  pulpit 
subservient  to  unworthy  ends,  there  are 
many  earnest,  wholesouled  young  preachers 


68  Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric. 

who  like  them  appear  to  preach  ^^for  effect'^ 
by  the  self-consciousness  and  artificiality  of 
their  gestures.  These  must  bear  in  mind 
that  perfection  in  preaching  is  attained  only 
by  slow  growth :  hence  they  should  observe 
the  good  old  maxim,  — Jestina  lente.  They 
should  also  practise  assiduously  in  private 
the  ordinary  gestures  appropriate  to  the 
pulpit;  but  until  they  can  perform  them 
naturally,  gracefully,  and  spontaneously,  it 
will  be  wisest  for  them  to  confine  them- 
selves, while  preaching,  to  the  impromptu 
movements  which  their  earnest  words  and 
their  ardent  zeal  for  souls  will  suggest. 

Students  can  gain  much  practical  know- 
ledge of  elocution  and  delivery  from  listen- 
ing to  eminent  preachers  and  orators,  and 
noting  carefully  the  unconscious  grace 
and  propriety  of  their  gestures,  their  dis- 
tinct articulation,  their  perfect  inflection 
and  modulation  of  voice,  with  the  other 
details  that  go  to  make  up  an  accomplished 
speaker.  Indeed,  few  things  would  be  of 
greater  advantage  to  seminarians  than  to 
hear  such  men  from  time  to  time  in  the 
seminary  halls. 


CHAPTER  V. 
Systematic  Teaching  of  Religion. 

As  I  have  already  said,  the  subject  of  all 
Christian  preaching  is,  directly  or  indirect- 
ly, Jesus  Christ,  the  Incarnate  Word.  1 
judged  not  myself^  says  St.  Paul  writing  to 
the  Corinthians,  to  know  anything  among 
you,  hut  Jesus  Christ;  and  Him  crucified. 
And  St.  John  in  the  Apocalypse:  /  am 
Alpha  and  Omega,  the  beginning  and  the  end, 
saith  the  Lord  God,  who  is  and  who  was,  and 
who  is  to  come,  the  Almighty, 

The  Church  leaves  her  ministers  free  to 
choose  their  own  method  of  treating  this 
subject.  If  they  select  for  their  theme 
some  revealed  doctrine  or  duty,  the  method 
is  called  topical.  If  they  take  the  Grospel 
or  Epistle  and  expound  and  apply  it  verse 
after  verse,  their  discourse  is  called  a 
homily  and  the  method  homiletic.  Finally, 
the  catechetical  method  is  the  systematic 
teaching  of  religion  according  to  the  order 
of  the  catechism  or  of  theology. 
(69) 


70  Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

I  prefer  this  last  method,  partly  because 
it  is  the  only  one  of  the  three  that  is  scien- 
tific, and  partly  because  it  is  the  only  one 
suited  to  the  exigencies  of  Catholics  in  this 
country.  This  latter  reason  needs  some  ex- 
planation. 

Our  American  Catholic  laity  have  in  our 
time  an  opportunity  of  doing  apostolic 
work  on  a  grander  scale  and  with  more 
hopeful  prospects  of  influencing  the  desti- 
nies of  the  human  race  than  any  other 
people  in  any  other  time  or  country  since 
the  establishment  of  the  Church. 

What  is  this  opportunity?  It  is,  first  of 
all,  the  opportunity  of  example,  —  of  show- 
ing their  fellow  citizens,  by  daily  life  and 
conduct,  the  beauty,  the  consistency,  the 
truth  and  happiness  of  practical  Catholic 
faith.  Americans  of  all  religious  denomi- 
nations are  sick  of  mere  lip- worship,  of 
hollow  forms  and  shams,  of  whited  sepul- 
chres. They  crave  for  a  religion  of  the 
heart,  grounded  on  a  solid  basis  of  truth; 
and  they  wait  to  see  it  preached,  not  in 
words  alone,  but  in  actions,  —  sincere,  uni- 
form, unpretentious  actions, — to  embrace 
and  practise  it  themselves.     Now  the  Cath- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.  71 

olic  Church  here  in  America  supplies  such  a 
rehgioii;  but  the  preaching  of  it  to  out- 
siders is  entrusted  by  divine  Providence 
chiefly  to  the  laity,  not  from  the  conven- 
tional pulpit,  but  in  the  home,  in  the  work- 
shop, in  the  railway-car, — in  every  place  of 
social  and  business  intercourse.  Wherever 
there  is  a  Catholic  layman,  there  is  a  Cath- 
olic pulpit,  from  which  an  influence  may  go 
out,  more  potent  for  good  and  wider  in  its 
sphere  than  much  of  our  formal  preaching. 
Our  laity  has  another  opportunity  inti- 
mately connected  with  this  just  mentioned. 
It  is  to  give  an  intelligent,  satisfactory  ac- 
count of  their  faith  to  sincere  inquirers. 
Outsiders  have  traditional  prejudices  against 
us,  supported  by  misunderstandings  and 
misrepresentations.  Many  of  them  wonder 
how  such  an  accumulation  of  idolatry, 
superstition,  craft,  duplicity,  etc.,  as  they 
think  us,  can  have  held  together  so  long. 
But,  side  by  side  with  those  prejudices,  is  a 
suspicion,  a  dread,  that  after  all  we  may  be 
in  the  right.  They  know  well  how  easy  it 
is  to  start  a  falsehood,  and  how  hard  it  is  to 
stop  it  in  its  mischievous  course.  May  not 
all  they  have  been  hearing  about  Catholics 


72  Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

since  their  childhood  be  such  a  falsehood? 
At  least,  they  think  it  worth  their  while  to 
inquire;  and  they  will  inquire,  if  they  are 
acquainted  with  a  practical  Catholic  whose 
truth  and  honesty  and  sterling  worth  have 
won  for  him  confidence  and  respect  with  all 
who  know  him.  And  that  inquiry  implies 
not  only  the  working  of  divine  grace  in 
those  men^s  souls;  but  it  implies  also  a 
special  economy  of  divine  Providence,  by 
which  their  conversion  and  salvation  are 
made  to  depend  very  much  on  the  abiUty  of 
that  Catholic  layman  to  give  them  a  satis- 
factory explanation  of  the  teaching  of  the 
Church.  This  he  will  be  able  to  do  only  by 
following  closely  a  continuous,  systematic 
course  of  sermons  on  Christian  faith  and 
duty.  Hence  the  necessity  of  the  American 
pastor  giving  such  a  course. 

The  conditions  of  American  social  life, 
then,  seem  to  demand  that  Catholics  be  in- 
structed systematically  in  their  religion. 
The  advanced  education  of  the  people  de- 
mands the  same.  Theology,  as  the  scien- 
tific development  of  faith,  is,  in  its  incep- 
tion and  progress,  the  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  intended  to  meet  a  natural,  legiti- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric,  73 

mate  craving  of  the  educated  intellect.  The 
same  craving  exists  in  the  popular  Ameri- 
can mind ;  and,  to  satisfy  it,  we  are  clearly 
bound  to  systematize  and  connect  in  a 
definite,  consistent,  beautiful  whole  our 
doctrinal  and  moral  teaching  of  the  people. 
This  is  particularly  necessary  for  those 
business  people  who  have  precise,  well- 
arranged  ideas  on  other  matters,  and  who 
feel  real  pain  not  to  have  similar  ideas  on 
religion.  They  are  themselves  much  to 
blame  for  their  bewilderment,  because  they 
do  not  give  to  their  spiritual  interests  any 
of  that  serious  thought,  of  that  patient 
study  which  they  devote  to  their  ledger  and 
bank-book.  Yet  the  pastor  is  not  wholly 
blameless  who  does  not  give  those  men  a 
comprehensive  grasp  of  the  essential  means 
of  salvation.  Our  divine  Lord  on  many 
occasions  condensed  into  a  few  words  ^^the 
whole  law  and  the  prophets. '^  We  shall 
produce  much  more  abundant  fruit  than  we 
do,  if  we  imitate  Him  in  this  as  well  as  in 
other  characteristics  of  His  teaching. 

The  Third  Council  of  Baltimore  earnestly 
advises  priests  ^^to  give  a  connected  and 
thorough  presentation  of  Christian  doctrine 


74  Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric. 

either  in  the  order  of  the  Roman  Catechism, 
or  in  that  of  the  catechism  of  the  diocese, 
or  of  any  approved  author.''  The  fathers 
of  the  council  did  not  wish  to  interfere  with 
the  liberty  of  preachers  by  imposing  on 
them  any  formal  precept  regarding  the 
choice  or  sequence  of  subjects;  yet,  for  all 
zealous  priests,  the  united  exhortation  of 
their  bishops  assembled  in  synod  will  have 
the  directive  influence  of  a  law,  especially 
when  the  exhortation  results  from  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  requirements  of  the 
people. 

Note.  I  admit  freely  that  the  homily  on  the  Sun- 
day Gospel  or  Epistle  was  the  most  ancient  form  of 
preaching.  It  is  also  in  stricter  accordance  with  the 
spirit  of  the  liturgy  than  either  the  topical  or  the  cate- 
chetical sermon.  But  neither  its  antiquity  nor  its 
greater  harmony  with  the  public  prayer  of  the  Church 
can  at  all  weigh  against  the  exigencies  of  modern 
Catholic  life.  Besides,  in  the  early  and  medieval  ages 
of  the  Church,  — in  fact,  down  to  the  German-English 
revolt  of  the  sixteenth  century, —  the  mysteries  of  faith 
were  taught  not  by  preaching  alone,  but  by  the  language 
of  symbols,  not  during  half  an  hour  once  a  week,  but 
by  magnificent  ceremonial  celebrations,  frequently 
continued  through  several  days.  In  those  times,  in 
addition  to  the  fifty-two  Sundays  of  the  year,  nearly 
forty  festivals,  with  their  vigils  and  octaves,  were  cele- 
brated, not  to  commemofate  but  to  represent  the  mys- 
teries and  effects  of  Redemption.  In  our  days,  on  the 
contrary,  when  symbolic  religious  teaching  is  no  Ion-- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.  75 

ger  tlie  powerful  agency  it  was,  its  place  must  be  sup- 
plied by  some  other  means ;  and  no  other  seems  so 
fitting  or  practicable  as  the  systematic  course  of  ser- 
mons here  recommended. 

At  the  outset  of  this  course ,  we  should 
inspire  our  people  with  deep  reverence  and 
with  filial  confidence,  obedience  and  love 
toward  the  Church  which  we  represent  in 
the  pulpit.  We  should  explain  to  them 
clearly  and  forcibly,  that  it  is  an  active,  or- 
ganic, divinely  endowed  being  that  has 
been  living  and  working  in  the  world  since 
Jesus  Christ  called  it  into  existence,  and 
shall  continue  to  live  on  and  to  work  on  to 
the  end  of  time ;  that  it  saw  Him  its  Creator 
in  the  flesh,  witnessed  His  miracles,  listened 
to  His  teaching,  stood  by  at  His  death,  con- 
versed with  Him  after  His  Resurrection, 
gazed  in  awe  at  His  divine  Person  ascending 
into  Heaven,  We  should  make  a  rapid  sur- 
vey of  its  action  on  the  human  race  after  its 
baptism  in  the  Holy  Ghost  and  fire  on  the 
day  of  Pentecost;  its  conflict  with  Judaism, 
paganism,  philosophy;  its  victory  over  the 
Eoman  empire  —  the  world^s  stronghold  of 
error;  its  conversion  of  the  savage  hordes 
that  swept  down  on  southern  Europe  in  the 
fifth  and  succeeding  centuries ;  its  formation 


76  Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric, 

of  Christian  society ;  its  struggle  with  error 
and  passion  from  Luther's  revolt  down  to 
the  present  day.  We  should  bring  out 
clearly  the  identity  of  the  Catholic  priest 
with  that  world-wide,  undying,  theandric 
creation  of  Grod  for  the  regeneration  and 
salvation  of  the  human  race.  Its  commis- 
sion to  teach  and  save  is  his  commission ; 
its  authority  is  his  authority.  He  can  say 
with  truth:  '^The  Catholic  Church  that  I 
represent  and  whose  voice  I  am,  is  the 
divinely  appointed  teacher  of  the  nations, 
and  her  message  of  salvation  all  are  bound 
to  hear.  —  That  message  I  now  deliver  to 
you.  He  that  hears  her,  speaking  by  her 
accredited  minister,  hears  Jesus  Christ ;  and 
he  that  despises  her,  while  so  speaking, 
despises  Him  whose  commission  she  dis- 
charges.'^ 

Note.  It  does  not  follow  from  what  is  said  here, 
that  a  pastor,  teaching  his  people,  is  infallible  in  all  he 
teaches.  He  may  misunderstand,  or  exaggerate,  or 
minimize,  or  even  falsify  the  doctrines  of  revelation ; 
but  if  he  do  so,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  he 
does  not,  as  far  as  he  leads  others  into  error,  represent 
either  Jesus  Christ  or  His  Church.  Yet,  notwithstand- 
ing this  possibility,  the  people  can  have  no  prudent 
doubt  that  he  is  a  faithful  exponent  of  divine  revela- 
tion, as  long  as  he  is  delegated  to  preach  by  his  bishop, 
who  himself  is  in  communion  with  the  vicar  of  Christ 
the  supreme  and  infallible  head  of  the  Church. 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric,  11 

When  a  pastor  has  made  clear  to  his 
people  his  delegated  authority  to  teach  them 
all  things  necessary  for  salvation,  he  should 
in  his  next  sermon  give  a  summary  of  those 
things  in  the  order  of  the  catechism.  This 
summary  should  itself  be  often  summarized 
throughout  the  course,  so  that  the  relation 
of  each  truth  or  duty  explained  to  the 
whole  body  of  revelation  may  be  easily  com- 
prehended. 

In  the  first  series  of  sermons  on  Christian 
doctrine,  clearness,  brevity,  progressive 
movement,  freshness  of  presentment  and, 
above  all,  unction  should  give  a  growing 
interest  to  our  words  as  we  proceed.  Hence, 
minute  details  should  be  reserved  for  the 
next  series.  Each  sermon  should  glow  with 
fervent  sentiments  springing  from  our 
spiritual  conception  of  the  theme.  Much 
solid  instruction  must  be  conveyed,  of 
course*,  but  it  must  be  conveyed  in  an 
emotional,  rather  than  in  an  intellectual, 
form.  Unmoved  ourselves,  we  may  speak 
fluently,  without  moving  others,  of  the  at- 
tributes of  Grod,  of  the  Incarnation,  of  the 
Sacraments ;  but  if  we  bring  them  home  to 
ourselves  as  living,  present  realities,  if  we 


78  Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric, 

set  them  side  by  side  with  those  other 
realities  that  press  upon  our  physical  and 
social  life,  such  as  light,  air,  food,  home, 
friends,  etc.,  we  must  be  filled  with  amaze- 
ment and  awe,  with  fear  vanishing  into 
ecstasy,  somewhat  like  men,  introduced 
blindfolded  into  a  gorgeous  palace,  when 
the  bandage  is  taken  from  their  eyes  and 
they  gaze  on  the  undreamt  magnificence 
around  them.  So  should  we  feel  and  with 
such  feeling  should  we  speak  the  revealed 
truths  we  announce.  After  hearing  us,  the 
people  should  go  away  so  enraptured  with 
the .  majesty  and  power  and  goodness  of 
God,  with  the  wealth  of  grace  offered  them 
in  the  Sacraments,  with  the  ineffable  bliss 
in  store  for  them,  that,  for  the  time  being 
at  least,  the  human  interests  of  life  would 
be  pushed  far  into  the  background,  sin  would 
be  unbearable,  and  the  vision  of  faith  would 
appear  the  only  source  of  true  happiness. 

Note.  By  frequent  repetitions,  aUusions  and  dis- 
gressions,  in  our  sermons  we  ought  to  make  our  hearers 
familiar  with  the  real  though  invisible  world  of  faith 
in  which  we  live.  Justus  mens  ex  fide  vivit.  Life  in 
its  fullness  is  scarcely  possible  without  contact  and 
familiarity  with  its  surroundings. 

After  the  first  course  of  sermons  on  the 
catechism  has  been  preached,  a  pastor  will 


Manual  oj  Sacred  Ehetoric,  79 

go  over  the  same  ground,  giving  fuller  de- 
tails of  doctrine  and  duty,  explaining  and 
refuting  popular  objections,  and  especially 
animating  the  audience  to  a  higher  standard 
of  Christian  living  corresponding  to  the 
brighter  vision  of  faith  which  they  receive. 
When  divine  truth  is  thus  systematically 
explained  in  a  setting  of  appropriate  senti- 
ments, affections  and  resolutions,  it  irradi- 
ates the  soul  of  the  listener,  satisfies  his 
spiritual  longings,  and  brings  him  nearer  to 
his  Saviour.  It  gives  him,  too,  a  deep 
practical  interest  in  the  promotion  of  Cath- 
olic missions,  in  the  spread  of  Cathohc  liter- 
ature, in  the  triumph  of  Catholic  truth.  He 
defends  rehgion  with  modesty,  but  also 
with  confidence  and  zeal,  whenever  he 
hears  it  misrepresented  or  insulted.  Un- 
like so  many  of  our  people  who  scarcely 
come  in  contact  with  the  Church  except  in 
the  Sunday  Mass  and  the  paschal  Com- 
munion, this  man  shares  to  the  fullest  in 
her  world-wide  life  and  work;  his  heart 
beats  in  unison  with  hers  in  her  triumphs 
as  in  her  sufferings,  in  her  head  as  in  her 
members,  in  her  mission  to  the  South  Sea 
Islander  as  in  her  ministry  at  home  in  his 
native  parish. 


CHAPTER  YI. 
Definite  Object  of  Sermon. 

A  lawyer  pleading  for  a  prisoner  has  a 
definite  object  in  view,  —  to  persuade  the 
jury  to  return  a  verdict  of  ^^Not  guilty. '^ 
Every  word  in  his  address,  every  argument, 
every  motive,  every  appeal  to  the  feelings, 
every  gesture,  every  inflection  and  intona- 
tion of  the  voice,  —  all  are  confined  to  this 
one  object  and  directed  by  it. 

So  too,  a  party  orator,  at  election  time, 
in  his  speech  to  a  meeting  of  citizens,  has 
one  clear,  distinct  object  in  view,  —  to  gain 
their  votes.  He  does  not  fatigue  them  with 
a  dissertation  on  political  economy ;  he  does 
not  ramble  into  side  issues ;  he  does  not  use 
learned  words  or  balanced  sentences;  nor 
does  he  pose  as  a  professor  of  elocution ;  he 
places  himself  in  speech  and  manner  on  a 
level  with  his  hearers,  enters  into  their 
thoughts  and  feelings,  takes  advantage  of 
their  weaknesses,  coaxes,  flatters,  rouses, 
entreats,  —  in  a  word ,  leaves  no  stone  un- 
(80) 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.  81 

turned  to  secure  them  effectually  for  his 
party. 

Even  in  everyday  life,  in  the  ordinary  in- 
tercourse of  man  with  man,  whenever 
speech  is  used  for  the  purpose  of  persua- 
sion, there  is  of  necessity  before  the  speak- 
er's mind  one  definite,  practical,  central  ob- 
ject, which  he  is  resolved  to  achieve  by 
clear,  earnest,  cumulative  reasoning  com- 
bined with  all  the  varied  resources  with 
which  eloquence  moves  the  will  to  action. 
No  useless  word  is  spoken ;  there  is  no  list- 
lessness  or  apathy  of  manner; — nothing  but 
intense,  concentrated,  impassioned  earnest- 
ness. 

As  it  is  with  the  lawyer,  the  party  orator, 
— everyone  who  would  persuade  another, — 
so  should  it  be  with  a  preacher  of  the 
Word.  His  direct,  conscious  aim,  even  be- 
fore he  selects  or  studies  his  theme,  ought 
to  be  to  bring  home  some  distinct  spiritual 
good  to  his  hearers.  To  do  this  ought  to 
be  his  primary  end  in  preaching,  —  an  end 
to  which  everything  in  his  sermon  should 
be  conducive  and  secondary.  To  talk  from 
the  pulpit  without  zeal  and  without  prepara- 
tion,  solely  because   it    is    one's  turn  to 


82  Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

preach ;  to  memorize  and  deliver  some  bril- 
liant passages  in  a  setting  of  commonplaces, 
for  the  admiration  of  a  few  cultured  people 
in  the  congregation ;  to  translate  arguments 
and  answers  to  objections  from  Perrone  or 
Hurter,  and  deliver  them  over  the  heads  of 
the  people :  —  none  of  these  performances 
has  any  title  to  be  called  preaching.  They 
may,  perhaps,  instruct,  and  even  please; 
but  they  do  not  move,  —  at  least,  in  the 
direction  of  spiritual  action,  —  because  the 
preacher  has  before  his  mind  no  definite 
practical  end  to  which  he  would  guide  and 
urge  his  hearers.  As  I  have  already  said, 
preaching  is  essentially  a  persuasive  popu- 
lar discourse ;  and  to  be  persuasive,  it  must 
use  every  available  means  to  move  the  will 
to  take  some  onward  step  toward  salvation. 
This  onward  step,  by  which  each  sermon  is 
individualized,  is  what  I  understand  by  the 
definite  object. 

In  a  doctrinal  sermon,  the  definite  object 
is  the  spiritual  impression  of  some  revealed 
truth.  A  child  listening  to  an  explanation 
of  the  Seventh  Commandment  with  its 
hand  in  another  child's  pocket  stealing 
whatever  it  finds  there,  has  no  spiritual  im- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric,  83 

pression  made  on  it  by  the  speaker's  words. 
Its  conscience  is  not  touched.  It  does  not 
make  the  knowledge  it  receives  personal, 
regulative,  corrective.  So,  too,  doctrinal 
knowledge  must  not  be  merely  intellectual 
and  impersonal.  It  must  touch  the  heart 
and  conscience;  it  must  cause  remorse  for 
sin  and  dissatisfaction  with  one's  self  on 
account  of  it,  if  not  repentance ;  it  must  be 
even  for  a  hardened  sinner  a  bright  vision 
of  a  higher  life  which  he  contrasts  in  sad- 
ness with  the  groveling  life  he  is  leading. 

It  is  difficult  to  stamp  on  the  soul  this 
spiritual  impression  of  dogmas  and  mys- 
teries ;  nay,  it  is  not  only  difficult  but  im- 
possible, if  the  preacher  be  not  a  spiritual 
man.  But  if  he  meditate  on  them  for  his 
own  profit,  and  if  he  live  habitually  in  the 
higher  sphere  of  which  they  are  the  light 
and  atmosphere,  with  earnest  preparation 
he  may  confidently  hope  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  will  supply  whatever  his  words  may 
be  too  weak  to  impart.  The  broken  ex- 
pressions of  a  soul,  awe-stricken,  believing, 
adoring,  loving,  in  the  presence  of  some  un- 
fathomable mystery,  will  do  more  spiritual 
good  than  the  most  learned  disquisitions  of 
theology  on  the  subject. 


84  Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

The  definite  object  of  a  moral  sermon 
"will  usually  be  some  particular  practical  re- 
solution regarding  Christian  duty, — the  ac- 
quisition of  some  virtue,  the  avoidance  of 
some  vice,  the  fulfillment  of  some  precept, 
the  practice  of  some  special  devotion.  A 
resolution  is  practical  when  it  is  adapted  to 
the  person  on  whom  it  is  urged.  It  should 
not  require  extraordinary  graces  for  its  ful- 
fillment ;  and  it  should  not  seek  to  raise  one 
to  a  perfection  foreign  to  one's  state.  Faith, 
hope,  charity,  prayer,  religion,  prudence, 
justice,  fortitude  and  temperance,  —  these 
with  the  vices  opposed  to  them  supply  an 
abundant  source  of  practical  resolutions  for 
all  classes. 

It  is  not  enough,  however,  that  a  reso- 
lution, to  be  the  definite  object  of  a  sermon, 
be  practical ;  it  should  also  be  particular ; 
that  is,  it  should  not  extend  to  all  the 
offices  of  a  virtue  or  to  all  the  branches 
of  a  vice,  but  confine  itself  to  one,  so  that 
it  may  be  kept  by  the  uniform  repetition  or 
omission  of  the  same  act. 

The  object  aimed  at  in  a  sermon  may  be 
definite  in  either  of  two  ways,  it  may  be  ex- 
plicitly enunciated,  explained,  and  enforced ; 
or    it    may    be    a    conclusion    which    the 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric,  85 

preacher  leaves  to  be  drawn  by  the  audience 
from  well  established  premises.  In  other 
words,  the  object  of  a  sermon  may  be  ex- 
plicitly or  implicitly  definite ;  but  in  either 
case,  the  preacher  must  have  clearly  and 
explicitly  before  his  mind  what  impression 
he  intends  to  produce.  I  am  convinced 
that,  as  a  general  rule,  the  definite  object 
ought  to  be,  not  a  conclusion  left  to  the 
hearers  to  draw,  but  a  conclusion  drawn 
for  them,  formally  announced  to  them,  and 
explained  and  enforced  with  apostolic  direct- 
ness. The  only  exception  to  this  rule  that 
I  would  admit  is  the  rare  case  in  which  an 
audience  is  wholly  averse  to  the  adoption  of 
the  definite  object;  so  much  so,  indeed, 
that  the  preacher  deems  it  useless,  if  not 
harmful,  to  propose  it.  What  is  to  be 
done?  Simply  to  lead  such  an  audience  by 
reasoning  and  persuasion  to  a  practical  con- 
clusion in  which  the  definite  object  aimed 
at  is  logically  contained.  Leave  reason 
illumined  by  divine  grace  to  do  the  rest. 

Not:^.  Of  course,  it  is  supposed  that  the  audience 
is  in  good  faith,  or,  at  least,  is  not  aware  of  the  gravity 
of  some  obligation  which  has  to  be  pointed  out  to 
them.  The  obligation  of  severing  connection  with  cer- 
tain secret  societies  may  be  given  as  an  example. 


86  Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

Although  the  definite  object  should  in- 
fluence every  part  of  a  sermon,  yet  it 
should  not  be  announced  formally  until  the 
preacher  feels  sure  of  its  acceptance.  How- 
ever open  to  persuasion,  men  do  not  take 
kindly  to  coercion  in  any  form,  especially 
to  coercion  of  the  will.  ^  ^Should/ ^ 
* 'ought,''  ^'must,''  and  words  of  similar  im- 
port drive  the  mind  instinctively  into  an 
attitude  of  resistance,  and  should  therefore 
be  very  sparingly  used. 

A  definite  object  kept  steadily  before  the 
mind  will  save  the  preacher  from  the  not 
unusual  mistake  of  exhorting  his  hearers  to 
take  various  resolutions  in  the  same  ser- 
mon. If  he  persuade  them  effectively  to 
take  one  resolution,  he  has  done  all  that 
should  be  done ;  and  if  he  attempt  more  he 
is  doomed  to  certain  disappointment.  There 
is  waste  of  energy  not  only  in  crowding  all 
the  precepts  of  the  Decalogue  into  one  ser- 
mon; but  also  in  trying  within  the  same 
space  to  enforce  all  the  duties  comprised  in 
the  full  observance  of  any  one  virtue. 

Although  the  definite  object  should  in- 
fluence every  part  of  a  sermon,  its  influence 
should  be  generally  indirect  rather  than 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.  87 

direct.  It  should  make  the  introduction 
attractive  and  interesting,  the  exposition 
and  illustration  not  only  clear  and  lumi- 
nous, but  suffused  with  emotion,  and  the 
conclusion  fervid,  impassioned,  practical, 
irresistible.  It  is  primarily  not  an  an- 
nouncement to  be  made  to  the  audience, 
but  a  guide  to  the  preacher  in  what  he  is  to 
announce  and  how  he  is  to  announce  it. 
While,  then,  his  thoughts  and  their  ar- 
rangement are  to  be  regulated  by  it,  there 
is  no  need  of  frequently  interrupting  their 
sequence  by  giving  it  formal  expression. 
Yet  the  deepening  emotion  excited  in  the 
progress  of  his  discourse  should  become  to- 
wards the  end  more  and  more  suggestive 
of  the  definite  object. 

It  is  not  always  easy  for  a  preacher  to 
overcome  the  temptation  of  introducing 
some  brilliant  rhetorical  passage,  illustra- 
tive or  emotional,  that  may,  indeed,  be 
suggested  by  his  theme,  but  does  not  run 
in  the  direction  of  the  definite  object. 
Singleness  of  purpose,  zeal  for  souls,  and  a 
keen  sense  of  responsibility  will  save  the 
preacher  from  this  temptation.  The  wan- 
dering eye  takes  uncertain  aim;    and  the 


88  Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

priest  largely  influenced  by  human  motives 
in  preaching  will  seldom  impress  a  practical 
resolution  on  the  minds  of  his  hearers.  He 
will  please  and,  perhaps,  try  to  convince, 
because  his  self-seeking  view  could  not 
otherwise  be  satisfied ;  but  his  effort  to  per- 
suade will  be  slight  and  ineffectual,  because 
other  objects  of  greater  import  engage  his 
attention. 

Note.  I  do  not  object  to  secondary  human  motives 
in  preaching,  provided  they  support  higher  motives  for 
the  attainment  of  the  definite  object.  But  motives  that 
make  a  preacher  shrink  from  minute  details,  from 
strong  direct  language  when  necessary,  and  from 
apostolic  earnestness  as  bad  form,  —  such  motives  can- 
not be  too  severely  condemned. 

A  preacher  may  not  think  formally  of  the 
definite  object  and  yet  he  will  seek  to  attain 
it  if  he  earnestly  endeavor  to  make  his 
words  spiritually  helpful  to  his  hearers.  In 
this  case,  however,  there  is  a  danger  that 
having  determined  on  no  practical  issue  at 
the  beginning  of  his  sermon,  he  will 
through  most  of  it  talk  vague,  pointless 
generalities ;  and  when  he  comes  to  make  a 
special  application  to  conduct  of  the  matter 
he  has  expounded,  he  will  find  that  much 
of  it  has  litfcle  or  no  bearing  on  the  resolu- 
tion he  desires  to  urge.     Besides,   he  is 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.  89 

liable  to  propose  not  one  but  several  definite 
objects,  thereby  overtaxing  his  hearers^ 
attention  and  dissipating  his  own  available 
energies.  I  find  many  sermons,  otherwise 
eloquent,  wanting  in  unity  and  pointedness 
of  application,  and  in  every  instance  I  can 
trace  the  reason  of  the  want  to  the  absence 
of  a  definite  object. 

Iivi^uSTRATiON.  I  open  the  first  sermon-book  that 
comes  to  hand  and  without  much  trouble  I  find  the 
following  conclusion  of  a  sermon  on  the  Mission  of  the 
Holy  Ghost:  "Ivet  us,  then,  to-day,  on  this  glorious 
feast  of  His  manifestation,  be  renewed  in  our  devotion 
to  the  Holy  Ghost;  let  us  henceforth  carefully  avoid 
all  that  could  grieve  this  Spirit  of  love,  and  especially 
all  impurity,  whether  in  thought,  word,  or  deed  —  this 
sin  which  most  of  all  defiles  His  sacred  temple  —  and 
let  us  invoke  Him  in  all  our  necessities.  Thus  He  will 
continue  to  dwell  in  our  hearts,  adorn  them  with  His 
virtues  and  gifts  in  this  life,  and  in  union  with  the 
Father  and  the  Son,  will  be  the  source  and  the  object 
of  our  eternal  happiness.  Amen."  Here  the  avoidance 
of  impurity  in  thought,  word,  or  deed  is  the  definite 
object,  which  is  supposed  to  be  attained  by  the  exposi- 
tion of  two  truths :  1.  The  mission  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
in  general ;  2.  His  special  mission  on  the  feast  of  Pen- 
tecost. A  glance  through  the  sermon  shows  that  the 
preacher  neither  in  setting  out  nor  in  the  development 
of  his  subject  had  any  idea  of  turning  his  hearers  from 
impurity.  He  gives  a  dry,  cold,  learned  disquisition 
on  the  Third  Divine  Person,  and  then,  apparently  for 
form's  sake,  tags  to  it  a  moral  exhortation.  This  is  not 
preaching. 


90  Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric. 

I  regard  this  close  adherence  to  a  definite 
object  of  such  vital  importance,  that  I  quote 
here  at  some  length  the  words  said  about  it 
by  the  greatest  ecclesiastical  writer  of  this 
century.  In  his  lecture  on  University 
Preaching,  Cardinal  Newman  says: 

**As  a  marksman  aims  at  the  target  and  its  bull's- 
eye,  and  at  nothing  else,  so  the  preacher  must  have  a 
definite  point  before  him,  which  he  has  to  hit.  So 
much  is  contained  for  his  direction  in  this  simple 
maxim,  that  duly  to  enter  into  it  and  use  it  is  half  the 
battle;  and  if  he  mastered  nothing  else,  still  if  he 
really  mastered  as  much  as  this,  he  would  know  all 
that  was  imperative  for  the  due  discharge  of  his  office. 

"For  what  is  the  conduct  of  men  who  have  one  ob- 
ject definitely  before  them,  and  one  only?  Why,  that 
whatever  be  their  skill,  whatever  their  resources, 
greater  or  less,  to  its  attainment  all  their  efforts  are 
simply,  spontaneously,  visibly,  directed.  This  cuts  off 
a  number  of  questions  sometimes  asked  about  preach- 
ing, and  extinguishes  a  number  of  anxieties 

We  ask  questions  perhaps  about  diction,  elocution, 
rhetorical  power ;  but  does  the  commander  of  a  besieg- 
ing force  dream  of  holiday  displays,  reviews,  mock 
engagements,  feats  of  strength,  or  trials  of  skill,  such 
as  would  be  graceful  and  suitable  on  a  parade  ground 
when  a  foreigner  was  to  be  received  and  feted;  or  does 
he  aim  at  one  and  one  thing  only,  viz.,  to  take  the 
strong  place?  Display  dissipates  the  energy,  which  for 
the  object  in  view  needs  to  be  concentrated  and  con- 
densed. We  have  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  Divine 
blessing  follows  the  lead  of  human  accomplishments. 
Indeed,  St.  Paul,  writing  to  the  Corinthians,  who  made 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.  91 

much  of  such  advantages  of  nature,  contrasts  the  per- 
suasive words  of  human  wisdom  'with  the  showing  of 
the  Spirit,'  and  tells  us,  that  'the  kingdom  of  God  is 
not  in  speech,  but  in  power.' 

************ 
"On  these  grounds  I  would  go  on  to  lay  down  a  pre- 
cept, which  I  trust  is  not  extravagant,  when  allowance 
is  made  for  the  preciseness  and  the  point  which  are 
unavoidable  in  all  categorical  statements  upon  matters 
of  conduct.  It  is,  that  preachers  should  neglect  every- 
thing whatever  besides  devotion  to  their  one  object, 
and  earnestness  in  pursuing  it,  till  they  in  some  good 
measure  attain  to  these  requisites.  Talent,  logic, 
learning,  words,  manner,  voice,  action,  all  are  required 
for  the  perfection  of  a  preacher;  but  *one  thing  is 
necessary,'  —  an  intense  perception  and  appreciation 
of  the  end  for  which  he  preaches,  and  that  is,  to  be  the 
minister  of  some  definite  spiritual  good  to  those  who 
hear  him.  Who  could  wish  to  be  more  eloquent,  more 
powerful,  more  successful  than  the  Teacher  of  the 
Nations?  yet  who  more  earnest,  who  more  natural,  who 
more  unstudied,  who  more  self-forgetting  than  He?" 


CHAPTER  VII. 
Form  of  a  Sermon. 

The  form  of  a  sermon  may  signify  the 
arrangement  of  thought  in  it,  or  the  style 
most  suitable  to  express  that  thought  ap- 
propriately. Hence  in  this  chapter  I  will 
treat  summarily  of  (1)  the  arrangement 
and  (2)  the  style  of  a  sermon. 

1.  A  sermon,  like  all  other  forms  of  dis- 
course, has  three  main  elements,  the  intro- 
duction, the  body,,  and  the  conclusion.  To 
follow  out  the  idea  of  growth  which,  as  I  have 
already  stated,  is  essential  to  every  sermon, 
the  introduction  corresponds  with  the  root 
of  a  tree,  while  the  body  and  the  conclusion 
correspond  with  the  trunk  and  the  ripened 
fruit.  In  other  words,  the  main  thought  is 
announced  in  the  introduction ;  it  is  devel- 
oped in  the  body  of  the  sermon ;  and  it  is 
applied  for  the  guidance  of  life  or  conduct 
in  the  conclusion. 

This  organic  unity,  essential  as  it  is,  does 
not  always  characterize  sermons  that  we 
(92) 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric  93 

hear  or  read.  Frequently  the  parts  Have 
but  slight  cohesion,  and  even  that  seems 
forced  and  factitious.  The  reason  seems  to 
be,  that  training  in  logical  clearness  and 
sequence  of  thought  is  not  considered  a 
necessary  preparation  for  preaching.  The 
undisciplined  mind  takes  the  bit  between 
the  teeth  and  carries  us  out  of  the  straight 
course  into  thickets  and  quagmires,  or,  at 
best,  into  by-ways  of  thought;  and  when 
we  return  exhausted,  we  find  that  it  is  time 
to  conclude,  although  we  have  supplied 
little  or  no  basis  on  which  a  practical  reso- 
lution can  be  grounded. 

NoT:e.  The  ordinary  Sunday  sermon,  weU  prepared 
and  delivered,  produces  more  than  the  spiritual  effect 
directly  intended  ;  it  has  besides  an  educational  value 
in  the  mental  training  of  our  people  and  in  the  ever  in- 
creasing store  of  knowledge  supplied  by  it.  We  may 
have  no  mission  to  teach  purely  intellectual  truth ;  but 
we  have  a  mission  to  develop,  refine,  and  elevate  the 
intellect  by  teaching  revealed  truth  in  such  an  orderly, 
suggestive,  and  inspiring  manner  that  the  soul  will  be 
raised  by  it  to  the  highest  plane  of  thought,  and  the 
purpose  and  relations  of  the  universe  will  be  seen  with 
a  fullness,  a  clearness,  a  certainty  beyond  the  reach  of 
human  science. 

As  I  shall  speak  hereafter  in  detail  on 
each  of  the  main  elements  of  a  sermon,  I 
will  give  here  only  a  few  general  principles 


■^1 


94  Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric. 

regarding  thera.  The  introduction  usually 
bears  the  relation  of  contrast  to  the  body 
of  the  sermon.  If  this  be  the  development 
of  a  general  truth,  that  is  some  particular 
fact,  example,  illustration,  or  parable,  con- 
taining it  in  concrete  form.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  the  body  of  the  sermon  treat  of 
some  particular  duty  —  a  precept  of  the 
Decalogue  or  a  Sacrament  —  the  introduc- 
tion will  be  a  general  statement  giving  the 
class  to  which  the  duty  belongs. 

Illusteation.  Bourdaloue  in  his  sermon 
on  the  Character  of  Grrace,  begins  by  ex- 
plaining the  words  of  our  Lord  to  the  Sa- 
maritan woman:  If  thou  didst  know  the  gift 
of  God.  ^^This  gift  of  God  which  the  Sa- 
maritan woman  did  not  know  is  the  grace 
of  Grod  —  a  precious  gift  which  we  do  not 
know,  or  care  to  know,  sufficiently.  Hence 
it  is,  that  we  often  receive  it  in  vain.  It  is, 
then,  important  that  I  should  give  you  a 
just  idea  of  it;  and  this  is  what  I  will  en- 
deavor to  do  in  the  present  discourse.  ^^ 

The  same  preacher  begins  his  sermon  on 
Idleness  (a  particular  vice)  with  the  general 
statement:  ^^There  are  three  kinds  of  justice 
which  God  may  exercise  toward  us:  vin- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.  95 

dicative  justice;  legal  justice;  distributive 
justice.  Of  this  last  I  will  not  speak.  The 
vindicative  justice  of  God  repairs  man^s  sin 
by  labor ;  it  is  also  by  labor  that  His  legal 
justice  regulates  all  the  states  and  condi- 
tions of  life.  Idleness  is  opposed  to  this 
two-fold  justice.'^ 

The  soul  must  see  before  it  acts ;  and  as 
action  (external  or  internal  —  the  definite 
object)  is  the  end  of  every  sermon,  it  is 
essential  that  we  should  show  the  nature, 
necessity,  advantages  of  what  we  urge  be- 
fore we  can  expect  any  result  from  our 
preaching.  The  body  of  the  sermon  is 
taken  up  with  this  explanation,  or  exposi- 
tion. IJnIike  other  forms  of  exposition, 
this  must  appeal  to  the  whole  soul,  not  to 
the  understanding  alone.  Its  end  is  not  to 
make  the  soul  see;  but  to  make  it,  through 
seeing,  to  determine  on  some  line  of  action 
that  we  point  out  and  urge,  ^enceexposi- 
tion  must  be  persuasive,  that  is,  it  must  not 
only  enlighten  the  soul,  but  it  must  inter- 
est, attract,  and  move  it.  This  may  not 
seem  practicable  in  definitions  and  divisi- 
ons ;  but  even  these  may  be  given  with  such 
clearness  and  simplicity,  with  such  earnest- 


96  Manual  of  Sacred  Bh^toric. 

ness  and  wealth  of  illustration,  that  they 
will  arouse  absorbing  interest  in  our  theme 
and  prepare  the  way  for  the  motives  by 
which  the  soul  is  more  immediately  in- 
fluenced. 

The  persuasive  element  in  the  body~of  a 
sermon  will  be  ineffectual  unless  the 
preacher  keeps  constantly  looking  into  the 
\y^  J  soul  of  his  audience,  noting  its  movements, 
and  adapting  his  words  to  theni^^  by  repeti- 
tion or  fuller  illustration  of  what  has  been 
already  said  or  by  passing  on  to  another 
branch  of  the  theme.  This  habit  of  keep- 
ing in  touch  with  the  soul  of  an  audience 
is  one  of  the  surest  signs  of  the  oratorical 
instinct.  Yet,  though  it  comes  not  by 
nature,  it  may  be  acquired, — as  indeed  may 
everything  else  necessary  for  the  preaching 
of  the  "Word, — ^by  zeal  and  earnestness. 

The  conclusion  of  a  sermon  sums  up  what 
has  been  said  in  the  course  of  it,  applies  it 
to  the  regulation  of  life  or  conduct,  and  en- 
forces the  application  by  a  last  appeal  to 
the  feelings  or  the  will.  The  only  general 
remark  to  be  made  on  this  part  of  a  dis- 
course is,  that  the  application  of  the  truth 
expounded  should  be  obvious.     The  soul  is 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.  97 

moved  only  by  what  it  sees ;  and  if  it  does 
not  see  the  connection  between  the  truth 
and  the  practical  resolution  grounded  on  it, 
the  sermon  will  bear  no  fruit. 

2.  As  to  the  style,  or  verbal  form  of  a 
sermon,  something  has  been  said  already; 
but  a  few  additional  remarks  will  not  be 
out  of  place  here. 

Conversation  is  the  ideal  of  all  written 
prose  composition.  We  speak  to  be  under- 
stood by  others ;  and  we  write  to  be  under- 
stood by  others.  The  end,  then,  being  the 
same,  the  essential  means  should  also  be 
the  same.  This  is  particularly  true  of  com- 
position intended  for  delivery.  The  people 
expect  us  to  speak  to  them  the  honest  con- 
victions that  regulate  our  own  lives;  and 
they  expect  us  to  speak  those  convictions  in 
a  direct,  simple,  energetic  way,  not  from 
book  or  manuscript,  but  with  the  fulness  of 
divine  knowledge  with  which  they  credit 
us. 

The  form  of  composition,  then,  required 
in  a  sermon  is  the  conversational.  What  is 
implied  in  this?  First  of  all:  clear,  simple, 
idiomatic  language,  —  diction,  phraseology, 
forms  of  sentences, — familiar  to  the  people. 


98  Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

The  thought  we  have  to  convey  is  difficult 
enough:  let  us  not  make  it  more  difficult  by 
using  long,  learned  words.  Our  people  do 
not  balance  their  phrases  or  clauses,  nor  do 
they  speak  in  periods  or  well  rounded  sen- 
tences ;  let  us,  then,  avoid  all  such  artificial 
forms  of  speech. 

Note.  "The  dignity  of  the  pulpit"  is  often  pleaded 
as  an  excuse  for  the  use  of  bookish  terms  and  phrases. 
This  implies  that  homely  words  and  idioms  are  un- 
dignified, or,  at  least,  unbecoming  the  pulpit.  I  can 
find  no  trace  of  this  doctrine  in  our  divine  I^ord's  dis- 
courses or  in  the  preaching  of  His  apostles.  Neither 
do  I  find  it  in  the  practice  of  apostolic  men.  Take  for 
example  St.  Bernard.  Although  a  good  latinist,  to 
make  himself  understood,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  use  the 
following  barbarous  terms:  Abarricanus,  galabrinum, 
grangia,  isembrunum,  maneries,  palefridus,  etc.  As  I 
take  it  for  granted  that  a  priest  is  an  educated,  refined 
gentleman,  it  is  unnecessary  to  mention  that  he  should 
never  use  slang  or  vulgarisms. 

The  conversational  style  suited  to  a  ser- 
mon implies,  in  the  second  place,  that  the 
thought  conveyed  should  be,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, simple  and  direct.  The  teaching  con- 
tained in  the  Catechism  includes  everything 
necessary  to  be  known  in  order  to  be  saved. 
—  Do  not  go  outside  the  Catechism,  then, 
for  your  subjects.  Define,  develop,  illus- 
trate, enforce  those  you  find  there,  and  you 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.  99 

will  have  ample  field  for  the  exercise  of  the 
highest  oratorical  powers.  Let  your  teach- 
ing be  direct ;  that-  is,  go  straight  to  the 
pith  of  your  subject,  keep  close  to  first 
principles,  draw  a  sharp  separating  line 
between  essentials  and  non-essentials,  pre- 
cepts and  counsels,  certain  and  uncertain 
obligations.  There  is  a  tendency  to  ex- 
aggeration in  most  preachers  which,  con- 
fined within  its  proper  hmits,  is  not  only 
allowable  but  useful,  as  it  suffuses  abstract 
truth  with  feeling  and  emotion.  When 
that  tendency,  however,  leads  a  preacher  to 
raise  a  pious  belief  into  a  dogma  of  faith, 
or  to  extend  the  limits  of  a  defined  dogma 
without  warrant,  or  to  insist  on  works  of 
supererogation  as  if  they  were  of  precept, — 
it  then  becomes  a  source  of  grave  injury  if 
not  of  ruin  to  the  audience. 

Thirdly,  the  conversational  style  of  a  ser- 
mon requires  that  we  speak  to  the  thoughts, 
difficulties,  doubts,  objections,  that  are  agi- 
tating the  minds  of  our  hearers  as  they 
listen  to  our  words.  They  have  no  oppor- 
tunity of  giving  expression  to  what  they 
think  or  feel ;  therefore  we  must  divine  it 
either  from  what  our  thought  naturally  and 


100         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

obviously  suggests  or  from  the  expressions 
of  the  faces  around  us. 

Illusteation.  In  his  ^ ^Discourses  to 
Mixed  Congregations^'  Cardinal  Newman 
frequently  interrupts  the  onward  movement 
of  his  thought  to  answer  objections  likely 
to  occur  to  the  minds  of  his  hearers.  Some- 
times, when  he  wishes  to  make  his  answer 
particularly  emphatic,  especially  if  it  be  a 
division  of  his  discourse,  he  amplifies  the 
objection  and  puts  it  in  as  strong  language 
as  an  adversary  could  wish.  We  have  the 
following  example  of  this  in  his  discourse 
on  the  Mystery  of  Divine  Condescension : 

^^And  now  that  I  have  set  before  you,  my 
brethren,  in  human  language,  some  of  the 
attributes  of  the  Adorable  Grod,  perhaps 
you  are  tempted  to  complain  that,  instead 
of  winning  you  to  the  All-glorious  and  All- 
good,  I  have  but  repelled  you  from  Him. 
You  are  tempted  to  exclaim,  —  He  is  so  far 
above  us  that  the  thought  of  Him  does  but 
frighten  me ;  I  cannot  believe  that  He  cares 
for  me.  I  believe  firmly  that  He  is  infinite 
perfection ;  and  I  love  that  perfection,  not 
so  much  indeed  as  I  could  wish,  still  in  my 
measure  I  love  it  for  its  own  sake,  and  I 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.         101 

wish  to  love  it  above  all  things,  and  I  well 
understand  that  there  is  no  creature  but 
must  love  it  in  its  measure,  unless  he  has 
fallen  from  grace.  But  there  are  two  feel- 
ings, which,  alas,  I  have  a  difficulty  in  en- 
tertaining; I  believe  and  I  love,  but  with- 
out fervor,  without  keenness,  because  my 
heart  is  not  kindled  by  hope,  nor  subdued 
and  melted  with  gratitude.  Hope  and 
gratitude  I  wish  to  have,  and  have  not;  I 
know  that  He  is  loving  towards  all  His 
works,  but  how  am  I  to  believe  that  He 
gives  to  me  personally  a  thought,  and  cares 
for  me  for  my  own  sake?  I  am  beneath 
His  love ;  He  looks  at  me  as  an  atom  in  a 
vast  universe.  He  acts  by  general  laws, 
and  if  He  is  kind  to  me  it  is,  not  for  my 
sake,  but  because  it  is  according  to  His 
nature  to  be  kind.  And  hence  it  is  that  I 
am  drawn  over  to  sinf  al  man  with  an  in- 
tenser  affection  than  to  my  glorious  Maker. 
Kings  and  great  men  upon  earth,  when 
they  appear  in  public,  are  not  content  with 
a  mere  display  of  their  splendor,  they 
show  themselves  as  well  as  their  glories; 
they  look  around  them ;  they  notice  indi- 
viduals ;  they  have  a  kind  eye,  or  a  courteous 


102         Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric. 

gesture,  or  an  open  hand,  for  all  who  come 
near  them.  They  scatter  among  the  crowd 
the  largess  of  their  smiles  and  of  their 
words.  And  then  men  go  home,  and  tell 
their  friends,  and  treasure  up  to  their  latest 
day,  how  that  so  great  a  personage  took 
notice  of  them,  or  of  a  child  of  theirs,  or 
accepted  a  present  at  their  hand,  or  gave 
expression  to  some  sentiment,  without 
point  in  itself,  but  precious  as  addressed  to 
them.  Thus  does  my  fellow-man  engage 
and  win  me ;  but  there  is  a  gulf  between  me 
and  my  great  Grod.  I  shall  fall  back  on 
myself,  and  grovel  in  my  nothingness,  till 
He  looks  down  from  heaven,  till  He  calls 
me,  till  He  takes  interest  in  me.  It  is  a 
want  in  my  nature  to  have  one  who  can 
weep  with  me,  and  rejoice  with  me,  and  in 
a  way  minister  to  me ;  and  this  would  be 
presumption  in  me,  and  worse,  to  hope  to 
find  in  the  Infinite  and  Eternal  God.'' 

A  fourth  requisite  of  conversational  style 
is  frequent  repetition  of  an  important 
thought,  not  only  to  make  sure  of  driving 
it  home,  but  also  to  give  it  time  when 
driven  home  to  settle  in  the  mind.  I  will 
treat  on  this  very  important  requisite  in  a 
future  chapter. 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         103 

Fifthly,  the  interrogative  form  of  sen- 
tence is  frequently  used  in  animated  con- 
versation: it  should,  therefore,  characterize 
the  style  of  a  sermon.  Interrogation  is  of 
two  kinds,  literal  and  figurative.  The  for- 
mer expects  an  answer,  the  latter  does  not, 
but  rather  gives  force  to  a  statement  or  as- 
sertion. This  figurative  kind  is  generally 
used  in  a  series  of  sentences  arranged  in 
climactic  order.  It  is  very  effective  when 
there  is  a  real  climax  of  thought ;  otherwise 
it  becomes  mere  declamation.  For  this 
reason,  fluent  speakers  have  to  use  it  with 
great  caution. 

Kxample  from  Father  Burke's  sermon  on  "Our  Cath- 
olic Young  Men  :'• 

**Now,  my  friends,  if  America  cannot  go  on  without 
inteUigence  and  manhood  and  energy,  I  ask  you,  is  it 
not  the  interest  of  America  to  see  who  it  is  that  can 

supply  her  most  intelligence  and  most  energy  ? 

Will  it  do  for  America  to  have  her  young  men  infidels? 
laughing  and  scoffing  at  all  religion?  laughing  and 
scoffing  at  the  idea  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  of 
man,  of  eternal  reward  in  Heaven,  of  eternal  punish- 
ment in  Hell?  Will  this  do  for  America?  If  the  mer- 
chants and  the  statesmen,  the  governors  and  the 
magistrates,  and  the  workingmen  of  this  land  are  to 
become  infidels,  if  they  are  to  lose  all  faith  by  reading 
bad,  infidel  books,  if  they  are  to  laugh  at  the  idea  of  a 
future  state  of  punishment  or  reward,  are  they  likely  to 
be  honester  men  for  this?      Is  the  national  property 


104         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

safer  in  their  hands  ?  Are  they  likely  to  be  better  mer- 
chants, more  reliable,  more  trustworthy?  Tell  me  — 
suppose  you  have  to  deal  with  two  men,  and  you  want 
to  intrust  your  money  to  one  of  them ;  and  one  told 
you  there  was  no  devil,  no  hell,  nor  heaven,  and  that 
he  very  much  questioned  if  there  was  a  God,  for  he  has 
been  reading  in  his  youth  bad  books,  which  completelj'^ 
upset  his  faith  ;  and  the  other  told  you  that  he  believed 
in  God,  and  heaven,  and  hell,  and  said  :  *I  believe,  my- 
self, that  I  shall  be  in  heaven  or  hell  for  all  eternity  — 
I  believe  I  shall  be  in  one  place  or  the  other,  according 
to  the  way  I  behave  myself  in  the  world ;'  to  which  of 
these  young  men  would  you  intrust  your  money? 
Would  you  give  your  money  to  the  fellow  that  told 
you :  *I  don't  believe  in  anything ;  if  I  choose  to  rob 
you,  there  is  no  hell  to  punish  me ;'  or  to  the  man  who 
said :  *I  believe  in  God,  and  that,  if  I  rob  you  of  your 
money  I  shall  go  to  hell  for  it.'?" 

In  conversation,  an  incident  is  best  told 
in  dramatic  form ;  that  is,  instead  of  giving 
in  our  own  words  the  substance  of  some- 
thing said,  we  personate  the  speaker,  giving 
his  words  and  representing  his  manner  and 
action  as  faithfully  as  possible.  The  imita- 
tion of  manner  and  action  would,  of  course, 
be  out  of  place  in  the  pulpit ;  but  the  dra- 
matic style  of  composition  gives  much 
liveliness  to  a  narrative,  relieves  the  hearer^s 
mental  strain,  and  disposes  him  to  give 
closer  attention  to  the  thought  illustrated  or^ 
enforced. 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         105 

The  conversational  style  of  a  sermon  does 
not  exclude  figurative  language;  on  the 
contrary,  when  the  thought  is  emotional  or 
impassioned,  figurative  language  is  its  only 
natural  form  of  expression.  Even  the  un- 
educated become  figurative  under  the  in- 
fluence of  strong  feeling.  It  need  not  be 
feared,  then,  that  the  conversational  style 
will  prevent  the  preacher  from  attempting 
those  lofty  flights  of  oratorical  expression, 
supposed  by  many  to  be  the  surest  test  of 
^ ^eloquence. '^  What  it  does  forbid,  though, 
is  the  bad  taste  of  using  the  figurative 
language  of  high-wrought  feeling  to  express 
plain,  passionless  thought. 

A  last  recommendation  to  a  young 
preacher:  If  you  find  it  difficult  to  adopt 
the  conversational  style  in  writing  your  ser- 
mons, imagine  you  have  one  of  your 
audience  before  you.  Think  what  you 
would  say  to  him,  and  how  you  would  say 
it:  1)  to  make  him  understand  the  matter 
about  which  you  speak  to  him;  2)  to  give 
him  time  to  turn  it  over  in  his  mind;  3)  to 
interest  him  in  it;  4)  to  answer  his  objec- 
tions; 5)  to  enlist  his  feelings;  6)  to  in-' 
fluence  his  will;  and  7)  to  carry  it,  as  it 


106         Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric, 

were,  by  storm,  by  persuading  him  to  ac- 
cept the  practical  resolution  which  was  your 
definite  object  throughout.  Write  down  as 
nearly  as  possible  what  you  would  thus  say 
to  your  imaginary  hearer,  and  your  sermon 
will  be  well  written.  There  may  be  some 
words  to  change,  some  expression  to  soften 
or  strengthen,  some  redundancies  to  re- 
trench; but  the  style  in  the  main  will  be 
appropriate  and  substantially  correct. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
Introduction. 

In  the  last  chapter  I  gave  a  general  view 
of  the  primary  elements  or  a  sermon,  namely, 
the  introduction,  the  body,  and  the  conclu- 
sion. I  now  come  to  speak  of  each  of  these 
in  detail. 

The  object  of  the  Introduction  is  to  pre- 
pare the  audience  for  the  development  of  the 
theme.  It  comes  first  in  the  order  of  de- 
livery, but  not  of  composition.  It  is  not 
advisable  to  arrange  or  write  this  part  of  a 
sermon  until  the  matter  of  the  other  parts 
has  been  collected  and  put  in  order.  Those 
who  disregard  this  recommendation  will 
usually  find  that  their  introductions  intro- 
duce nothing  definite,  but  rather  suggest 
various  vistas  of  thought  that  are  apt  to 
tempt  them  away  from  the  line  of  develop- 
ment they  intended  to  follow.  Some  preach- 
ers go  so  far  as  to  write  the  body  and  even 
the  conclusion  of  their  sermons  before  they 
(107) 


108         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric, 

write  the  introduction.  Cicero  says  of  his 
own  practice:  Quod  primum  est  dicendum^ 
postremum  soleo  cogitare.  Nam  si  quando  id 
primum  invenire  voluiy  nullum  miJii  occurrit^ 
nisi  exile  aut  nugatorium  aut  vulgar e  atque 
commune.  And  Quintilian  adds:  Non  ideo 
tamen,  eos  prohaverim^  qui  scrihendum  quoque 
proemium  novissime  putant.  In  this  matter, 
however,  of  writing  the  introduction  before 
or  after  the  composition  of  the  rest  of  the 
sermon,  the  preacher^ s  own  experience  will 
be  his  best  guide. 

In  a  normal  sermon  the  Introduction  be- 
gins with  a  text  of  Scripture.  This  form  of 
beginning  dates  back  to  the  time — the  fourth 
century — when  the  homily  gave  place  to  the 
topical  or  the  catechetical  sermon.  The 
principles  of  oratory  laid  down  by  Aristotle 
and  expounded  and  amplified  by  Cicero  and 
Quintilian  were  then  enlisted  in  the  service 
of  religion;  and  have  ever  since  been  fol- 
lowed by  our  greatest  preachers .  A  primary 
demand  of  those  principles  is  unity  of 
thought — design — object  in  a  sermon;  and 
the  text  is  intended  to  be  the  condensed  ex- 
pression of  that  unity.  Besides,  it  gives 
satisfaction  to  the  hearer  to  be  reminded  by 


Manual  of  Sacred  Elietoric.         1 09 

a  well  chosen  text,  that  Catholic  faith  is  un- 
changeable— the  same  in  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury as  in  the  first,  ever  the  one  unvaried 
revelation  of  the  Spirit  of  Grod. 

Note,  a  Catholic  preacher  needs  no  ''credentials  to 
his  flock,"  except  the  authorization,  or  mission,  of  his 
ecclesiastical  superior.  Even  though  he  did  need  it,  a 
text  of  Scripture  could  in  no  sense  supply  it.  Hence, 
it  is  unaccountable  how  a  Catholic  writer,  treating  of 
this  matter,  says  :  "In  opening  our  sermon  with  a  pas- 
sage from  Holy  Writ,  we,  as  it  were,  present  our  cre- 
dentials to  our  flock,  and  proclaim  our  right  to  speak 
as  the  ambassadors  of  Him  whose  word  it  is,  whilst  at 
the  same  time  we  secure  for  ourselves  and  our  discourse 
an  amount  of  reverent  attention  which  no  mere  words 
of  ours  could  possibly  gain."  The  truth  is,  that  non- 
Catholics,  having  no  ecclesiastical  mission  to  preach, 
find  a  convenient  substitute  in  a  Bible  text.  Hence,  to 
be  consistent,  they  must  allow  to  all  who  can  quote  one 
the  right  to  speak  as  the  ambassadors  of  Christ.  On 
the  contrary,  the  Catholic  Church  has  her  credentials 
to  preach  from  the  lips  of  our  Saviour  Himself.  You 
have  not  chosen  mey  He  says :  but  I  have  chosen  you;  and 
have  appointed  you,  that  you  should  go,  and  should  bring 
forth  fruit;  and  your  fruit  should  remain.  Because  of 
this  divine  mission,  coming  through  apostolic  succes- 
sion from  Jesus  Christ,  our  preachers  have  never  re- 
cognized any  necessity  of  beginning  their  sermons  with 
passages  from  Holy  Writ.  The  Fathers  often  preached 
without  them ;  and  in  our  own  time  many  eminent 
Catholic  preachers  do  not  use  them. 

A  text  should  be  brief ;  otherwise  it  will 
not  be  remembered  and  might  almost  as 


110         Manual  oj  Sacred  Rhetoric, 

well  be  omitted.  Sometimes  passages  of 
considerable  length  are  read  from  the  Bible 
at  the  beginning  of  a  sermon ;  but  they  can- 
not be  regarded  as  texts,  however  useful 
they  may  be  as  introductions. 

The  meaning  of  a  text  should  be  easily 
understood  by  the  audience.  Moreover,  the 
thought  conveyed  by  it  should  stimulate  in- 
terest in  the  theme  and  its  development. 

Another  characteristic  of  a  text  is  its 
appropriateness.  It  should  easily  suggest  the 
line  of  thought  to  be  followed  by  the 
preacher.  When  a  process  of  reasoning  is 
required  to  connect  the  text  with  its  develop- 
ment and  practical  application,  the  audience 
will  soon  forget  both  the  text  and  the  connec- 
tion. As  a  rule,  therefore,  it  is  not  advisable 
to  use  for  the  opening  of  a  sermon  a  Scrip- 
ture passage  in  a  factitious  sense  (in  sensu 
accommodatitio)  not  intended  by  the  inspired 
writer.  Non-Catholic  preachers  who  feel 
bound  always  to  preach  from  a  text  have  in- 
vented what  are  called  ^^ motto-texts^^  for 
sermons  on  such  unbiblical  themes  as  strikes, 
picnics,  sewing  circles,  etc.  I  cannot  con- 
ceive a  Catholic  priest  using  the  inspired 
Word  in  such  an  unworthy  fashion.     In  the 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric,         111 

first  place,  he  is  under  no  obligation  to  be- 
gin sermons  on  those  or  similar  topics  with 
Scripture  quotations;  and,  secondly,  his 
theme  on  all  such  occasions  is  a  particular 
aspect  of  some  virtue  or  vice  for  which 
abundance  of  texts  can  be  found. 

NoTie.  Dr.  Phelps,  iu  his  "Theory  of  Preaching," 
approves  of  motto-texts,  although  he  severely  condemns 
the  Fathers  for  their  allegorical  interpretations.  Ac- 
cording to  him,  a  converted  shoeblack  may  laudably 
preach  to  a  crowd  of  strikers  from  the  motto-text, 
'•Strike  hands"  (Prov.  XXII.  26),  but  St.  Gregory  the 
Great  might  not  use  the  parable  of  the  Talents  to  en- 
force a  moral  lesson.  The  following  are  his  ungracious 
and  unscholarly  words :  "3d.  Observe,  thirdly,  the 
Romish  corruption  of  the  custom  of  employing  texts. 
In  this  period  of  the  history  of  the  custom  several 
things  are  noticeable.  The  allegorical  principles  of  in- 
terpretation applied  to  the  Scriptures  by  Origen  and 
others  alter  him  destroyed  the  legitimate  force  of  the 
custom.  It  destroyed  logical  connection  between  text 
and  homily."  The  Fathers,  as  well  as  the  Church  in 
all  times,  have  used  allegorical  application  of  Sacred 
Scripture  for  illustrative — not  for  argumentative — pur- 
poses; but  this  was  done  by  inspired  writers  them- 
selves. (See  Heb.  xiii.  5  and  II  Cor.  viii.  5.) 

The  text  should  be  repeated  occasionally- 
through  the  sermon,  that  it  may  be  im- 
pressed on  the  memory.  For  the  same 
reason,  it  would  be  well  to  introduce  it  in 
the  conclusion  and  as  near  the  end  as  pos- 
sible.    Some  endeavor  to  finish  every  ser- 


112         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric, 

mon  with  it ;  but  this  gives  an  artificial  tone 
to  the  peroration,  and  is,  moreover,  soon 
noticed  as  a  mannerism. 

In  a  moral  sermon,  the  text  chosen  snould 
be,  as  far  as  possible,  one  suffused  with  emo- 
tion. This  kind  of  text  awakens  interest 
more  than  any  other.  It  has,  also,  an  in- 
spiring effect  on  the  preacher  himself,  and 
gives  a  ring  of  earnestness  to  his  voice  and 
words,  which  is  in  itself  a  better  introduction 
than  any  set  form  of  words. 

After  announcing  the  text,  the  preacher 
usually  explains  it,  and  in  doing  so  deduces 
his  theme,  or  the  view  of  his  subject  he  in- 
tends to  take.  This  time-honored  form  of 
introduction,  stereotyped  by  immemorial 
usage,  is  simple,  easy  and  natural ;  but  it  is 
apt  to  appear  dull  and  commonplace  when 
uniformly  used  by  a  pastor  Sunday  after 
Sunday  all  the  year  round.  Besides,  as  a 
text  is  not  essential  to  a  sermon,  its  explana- 
tion cannot  be  essential  to  the  introduction. 
A  preacher,  then,  is  at  full  liberty  to  lead  up 
to  his  theme  in  whatever  way  he  thinks 
best. 

Cicero  tells  us  that  the  oratorical  Introduc- 
tion (Exordium)  should  make  the  hearers 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric,         113 

well-disposed,  attentive,  and  inclined  to 
learn, — henevolos^  attentoSj  dociles.  Kindly 
feeling,  attention  and  docility  may  be  gen- 
erally presumed  in  a  Catholic  audience. 
Hence,  in  an  ordinary  sermon,  the  introduc- 
tion makes  no  reference  to  these  dispositions, 
nor  should  it,  in  my  opinion,  dwell  on  the 
importance  of  the  theme  to  be  developed. 
Our  people  are  sure  to  reaUze  its  importance, 
if  we  treat  it  competently;  if  we  do  not,  it  is 
useless  to  bespeak  their  attention  in  the  in- 
troduction. Indeed,  as  a  rule  which  covers 
even  ^^set  sermons, ^^  the  elaborate  exordium 
of  former  times  is  something  distasteful  to 
our  American  people.  In  their  own  speech 
they  are  direct  and  outspoken ;  and  they  ex- 
pect those  who  address  them  on  vital,  and 
especially  on  religious,  interests  to  be  equally 
straightforward. 

Besides  the  normal  introduction  spoken 
of  already,  many  others  are  used  by  preach- 
ers. I  will  say  a  few  words  about  those  I 
deem  the  most  important. 

I.  The  logical  introduction.  This  is 
grounded  on  the  principle,  that  all  teaching 
should  advance  from  the  known  to  the  un- 
known.    Hence  we  begin  our  sermon  with  a 


114         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric, 

brief  statement  of  something  admitted  by 
the  audience,  and  we  then  proceed  to  ex- 
pound and  apply  something  else  logically 
connected  with  it  which  the  audience  do  not 
know  or  do  not  fully  realize.  For  example, 
if  the  theme  of  a  sermon  be  the  crime  and 
misery  of  a  soul  that  abuses  the  grace  of 
God,  we  may  lead  up  to  it  by  describing  an 
abuse  of  authority  and  position  in  some 
public  official ;  he  is  dismissed  in  disgrace, 
reduced  to  penury,  unable  to  work,  ashamed 
to  beg,  despised  and  cast  off  by  his  former 
friends. — Life  is  a  stewardship  and  at  its 
close  we  shall  have  to  account  for  our  ad- 
ministration of  the  goods  connected  with  it. 
These  are  of  two  kinds,  natural  and  super- 
natural. Both  will  enter  into  the  judgment 
of  each  man  after  death;  but  his  heaviest 
responsibility  will  be  for  the  latter  —  for  all 
those  supernatural  gifts  which  are  comprised 
under  the  name  of  divine  grace.  The  crime, 
the  misery,  the  blank  despair  of  an  official 
convicted  of  systematic  dishonesty  in  the 
discharge  of  his  duties,  are  but  a  faint 
shadow  of  the  state  of  a  soul  convicted  after 
death  of  abusing  Grod's  most  precious  gifts. 
As  concrete  facts  are  better  known  than  re- 


Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric.         115 

vealed  truths,  it  follows  that  the  logical  in- 
troduction generally  consists  of  some  in- 
cident, example,  or  parable,  suggestive  of 
the  theme  to  be  expounded.  Hence  there 
should  be  a  relation  of  contrast  between  this 
introduction  and  the  body  of  a  discourse. 
When  the  latter  is  the  exposition  and  ap- 
plication of  some  doctrine,  the  former 
should  be  a  concrete  fact  leading  up  to  it ; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  if  facts,  objects, 
persons,  character,  mental  states  and  ex- 
periences form  the  substance  of  the  dis- 
course, they  are  best  ushered  in  by  some 
general,  self-evident  truth,  of  which  the 
facts,  objects,  etc.,  may  be  considered  de- 
finitive or  illustrative. 

BxAMPi^E.  No  thought  is  hidden  front  Thee.  (Job, 
xlii.  %.)  **The  holy  man  Job  has  expressed  a  truth 
which  we,  as  well  as  he,  must  acknowledge,  namely, 
that  there  is  no  thought  which  is  hidden  or  unknown 
to  God ;  and  therefore,  also,  it  was  that  Job,  although 
he  seemed  to  possess  peace  of  conscience,  turned  to 
God,  in  order  that  God  might  point  out  to  him  and  re- 
mind him  of  what,  without  his  knowledge,  he  might  be 
guilty.  Make  me  know  my  crimes  and  offences.  So, 
also,  must  we  proceed  when  we  prepare  for  confession." 
(On  Examination  of  Conscience.  Sermons  from  the 
Flemish,  vol.  5.) 

2 .  The  Introduction  by  insinuation.  This 
leads  up  to  the  theme  in  a  circuitous,  in- 


116         Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric. 

direct  way ;  because  if  the  doctrine  or  duty 
to  be  developed  and  enforced  were  presented 
directly,  it  would  stir  up  prejudices  in  the 
audience  that  would  hinder  its  adequate 
consideration.  This  form  of  introduction, 
therefore,  implies  a  particular  kind  of  theme, 
namelj^,  such  as  runs  counter  to  natural 
feeling  or  acquired  antipathies  or,  perhaps, 
to  some  sinful  habit  which  people,  for  one 
reason  or  another,  think  not  sinful  at  all, 
or,  at  least,  not  as  sinful  as  it  is  in  reality. 
Whether,  in  such  circumstances,  we 
should  use  this  indirect  method  of  introduc- 
ing our  theme,  or  should  rather  follow  the 
outspoken  directness  of  apostolic  men,  de- 
pends very  much,  if  not  wholly,  on  the 
ability  of  the  preacher.  If  he  combine  the 
talent  of  luminous  and  forcible  exposition 
with  the  rarer  and  higher  gift  of  persuasion, 
the  latter  course  seems  preferable ;  but  if  he 
distrust  his  powers  of  convincing  and  per- 
suading, having  reason  to  fear  that  a  direct 
introduction  of  an  unpopular  theme  will  ex- 
cite the  audience  to  an  attitude  of  opposi- 
tion that  no  after  effort  of  his  will  be  able 
to  change,  then  his  only  course  is  to  use  the 
introduction  by  insinuation.     However,  it 


Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric,         117 

will  be  found  that  very  few  sermons  require 
such  roundabout  form  of  opening.  The 
loyalty  of  our  people  to  the  Church  may  be 
relied  on  to  bear  the  pressure  of  most  un- 
palatable truths  on  their  preconceived  no- 
tions and  material  interests. 

This  exordium  is  used  also  to  excuse  any 
apparent  presumption  there  may  be  in  a 
preacher  undertaking  to  deal  with  a  theme 
beyond  his  ability,  or  in  his  succeeding 
some  popular  preacher  in  the  charge  of  a 
parish.  While  all  protestations  of  self- 
abasement  in  the  pulpit  are  odious  viola- 
tions of  good  taste,  a  sincere  expression  of 
diffidence  in  one^s  powers,  modestly  worded 
and  delivered,  have  a  charm  in  them  to 
silence  hostile  criticism  and  to  win  the  re- 
spectful attention  of  an  audience. 

NoTK.  I  have  said  already  that  a  preacher  can  gen- 
erally presume  on  the  good  will  and  attention  of  a 
Catholic  audience.  He  must  be  careful,  however,  not 
to  overstrain  these  dispositions.  This  is  sometimes 
done  by  introducing  a  sermon  with  a  scathing  denun- 
ciation of  defaulting  pew-renters.  A  priest  must  speak 
plainly  from  time  to  time  on  the  duty  of  the  peoj^e  to 
support  their  pastors  ;  but  it  is  best  to  do  so  in  the  form 
of  an  ordinary  sermon  from  which  all  personal  feelings 
and  all  narrow  local  allusions  should  be  carefully  ex- 
cluded. 


118         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

3.  The  abrupt  Introduction  (exordium  ex 
dbrupto)  is  an  impassioned  outburst  of  in- 
dignation, grief,  joy,  or  other  strong  feel- 
ing, in  the  beginning  of  a  sermon.  Such  in- 
troduction is  justified  only  by  some  excep- 
tional occasion  —  by  some  local  or  national 
occurrence  which  has  moved  men's  souls  to 
their  lowest  depths.  A  great  scandal,  for 
instance,  has  happened  in  a  parish ;  there  is 
intense  excitement  among  the  people;  the 
pastor  feels  bound  to  denounce  the  crime 
and,  as  far  as  possible,  to  counteract  its 
effects.  Here  the  use  of  the  abrupt  introduc- 
tion is  appropriate,  although  it  is  question- 
able if  it  be  obligatory.  St.  Paul,  the  most 
eloquent  of  the  apostolic  writers,  seems  to 
have  preferred  the  ordinary  form  of  intro- 
duction, even  when  he  had  a  gross  public 
crime  to  denounce  and  punish.  In  the 
opening  of  his  first  Epistle  to  the  Corin- 
thians, he  congratulates  them  on  being 
made  rich  in  Christ  Jesus  in  all  utterance 
and  in  all  knowledge ;  and  it  is  only  in  the 
fif^h  chapter  that  he  deals  with  the  scandal 
of  public  incest  that  had  occurred  amongst 
them. 

Whatever  may  be  said  about  the  advis- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.         119 

ability  of  using  this  introduction,  even  in 
circumstances  of  intensest  public  excitement, 
it  undoubtedly  requires  much  judgment  and 
tact  to  determine  the  space  to  be  given  to  it, 
and  still  more,  to  make  an  easy,  natural 
transition  from  it  to  the  body  of  the  sermon. 
It  is  always  difficult  to  pass  from  emotional 
to  non-emotional  speech;  and  there  is  a 
special  difficulty  in  doing  so  at  the  beginning 
of  a  discourse,  when  popular  excitement  is 
intensified  by  the  impassioned  language  of 
the  preacher,  and  the  audience,  in  conse- 
quence, is  but  Uttle  disposed  to  listen  to  the 
calm  exposition  of  doctrine. 

4.  The  grand  Introduction  starts  on  an 
elevated  plane  of  thought.  In  terse,  in- 
spiring, original  language  it  enunciates  some 
sublime  truth  which  is  made  the  background 
or  setting  for  the  special  view  given  of  it  in 
the  development  of  the  theme.  Preachers 
rarely  attempt  this  introduction,  as  they  not 
only  distrust  their  ability  to  continue  their 
sermon  in  the  strain  of  such  an  opening; 
and  besides  they  know  that  few  audiences 
are  capable  of  giving  sustained  attention  to 
such  a  discourse.  Hence,  they  prefer  to  act 
on  the  principle  of  gradual  upward  progres- 


120         Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric, 

sion  implied  in  the  well  known  maxim  of 
Cicero — Semper  crescat  augeaturque  oratio. 
We  may  conclude,  then,  that  for  all  or- 
dinary, and  generally  even  for  extraordinary 
occasions,  it  is  wisest  to  begin  modestly, 
and  to  leave  the  grand  exordium  to  men 
like  Bossuet  whose  majestic  intellect  soared 
without  effort  into  the  region  of  transcen- 
dental thought  and  lived  in  it  as  in  its  con- 
genial atmosphere. 

5.  A  popular  kind  of  introduction  is  de- 
duced from  the  body  of  the  sermon  (ex 
viscerihus  causae).  The  preacher,  after  col- 
lecting and  arranging  the  matter  he  intends 
to  convey,  gives  a  general  idea  of  it  in  this 
introduction,  by  telling,  1.  the  subject  to 
which  his  theme  belongs,  2.  the  theme  itself, 
or  the  special  view  of  the  subject  he  intends 
to  take,  and,  3.  a  brief  outline  of  his  mode 
of  treatment. 

An  introduction  of  this  kind  may  be  com- 
pared to  the  exhibition  of  a  picture  in  dim 
outline,  on  which  a  strong  light  is  thrown 
afterwards,  bringing  out  every  line  and 
feature  and  every  slightest  shade  of  color. 
Such  an  opening  has  the  merit  of  promoting 
clearness  of  comprehension  in  the  minds  of 


Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric.         121 

the  audience;  but  it  has  this  drawback,  that 
it  satisfies  their  expectation  too  soon  and 
thereby  lessens  attention  and  interest 
through  the  main  part  of  the  sermon. 
People  who  know  from  the  beginning  the 
substance  of  a  sermon  are  apt  to  be  listless 
regarding  details  of  exposition,  illustration, 
etc. 

In  a  series  of  sermons  such  as  I  recom- 
mended in  the  fifth  chapter,  the  introduction 
need  be  nothing  more  than  a  recapitulation 
of  the  preceding  discourse  with  a  clear, 
concise  statement  of  its  connexion  with  the 
present. 

A  few  words  will  suffice  about  the  qualities 
of  an  ideal  introduction.  According  to  the 
old  rhetoricians,  those  qualities  are  appro- 
priateness, care,  modesty,  and  brevity.  The 
first  requires  an  introduction  to  be  specially 
fitted  to  a  sermon,  so  that  it  would  be  un- 
suited  to  any  other.  The  second  excludes 
from  the  opening  of  a  sermon  all  slovenly, 
floundering  speech,  as  well  as  all  meretrici- 
ous ornaments  of  style — periodic  sentences, 
balanced  phrases  and  clauses,  striking  fig- 
ures, etc.  The  third  demands  a  certain  show 
of  reverence  for  the  audience  and  a  sense 


122         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

of  diffidence  in  one's  ability  to  address  it. 
Finally,  brevity  saves  an  introduction  from 
its  most  prevalent  fault  —  tedious,  prosy 
lengthiness. 

Note.  Young  preachers  are  apt  not  only  to  make 
their  introductions  too  long,  but  also  to  begin  too  far 
from  their  theme.  A  favorite  habit  of  many  of  them  is 
to  open  their  sermon  with  the  dawn  of  creation  or  the 
fall  of  our  first  parents.  Such  a  beginning  gives  a  little 
too  much  background  ;  and,  besides,  it  suggests  the  dis- 
agreeable suspicion  that  the  sermon  is  going  to  be 
drearily  long  and  commonplace.  For  long-winded 
young  orators,  Kleutgen  thinks  an  heroic  remedy  is 
necessary;  namely,  to  cut  out  everything  they  write  be- 
fore the  announcement  of  their  theme.  In  adolescenti- 
um  orationibuSy  he  says,  saepe  omnia  praecidenda  stmt, 
quae  eunt  locum  antecedunty  ubi primum  causam  ipsam 
attingunt.     (Ars  Dicendi,  p.  305.) 

The  prefatory  character  of  the  introduc- 
tion should  be  concealed  as  much  as  possi- 
ble. It  should,  therefore,  supply  from  the 
start  suggestive  and  inspiring  thought,  and 
lead  up  to  the  development  of  the  theme  by 
such  easy,  natural  sequence  of  ideas,  that 
the  transition  from  the  one  to  the  other 
would  be  scarcely  perceived. 

Among  writers  of  Catholic  sermons.  Car- 
dinal Newman  is  singularly  happy  in  his  in- 
troductions. There  is  a  gentle  flow  of  stim- 
ulating thought  in  them  that  takes  hold  of 


Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric.         123 

the  mind  and  carries  it  onward  without  con- 
scious effort.  Yet  before  they  can  be  use- 
fully studied  as  models,  large  allowance 
must  be  made  for  the  difference  between  an 
American  audience  and  such  an  English 
audience  as  he  addressed.  He  spoke  to  the 
cultured  intellect  of  his  day:  we  for  the 
most  part  preach  to  the  toiler.  The  con- 
science of  each  must  be  approached  on  lines 
special  to  itself. 

EXAMPLES. 

(Feast  of  the  Immaculate  Conception.  Text :  IV/io 
is  she  that  cometh  like  unto  the  morning  rising?) 

Introduction:  "It  was  thus  that  the  inspired  one  of 
the  Scripture  described  the  coming  of  Mary  the  Mother 
of  God.  He  contemplated  the  sad  night  of  four  thousand 
years,  and,  looking  towards  the  Orient,  he  saw  there  a 
vis.ion  of  divine  beauty  rising  before  him,  and  he  ex- 
claimed :  *Who  is  she  that  cometh  like  unto  the  morn- 
ing?' That  was  the  prophet's  vision,  and  behold  we 
are  celebrating  to-day  the  first  coming  of  Mary  the 
Mother  of  God,  our  I^ord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ — the 
first  moment  of  her  existence,  when  she  was  conceived 
in  her  mother's  womb.  Behold  the  dawn  of  that  day  of 
which  she  was  the  day-star,  the  precursor,  and  the 
promise !  Now,  observe  the  language  of  the  inspired 
one.  He  calls  her  aurora  consurgens — the  approach  or 
first  dawn  of  day  springing  up.  In  the  order  of  nature, 
dearly  beloved,  the  aurora  or  dawn  gives  promise,  and 
is  a  sure  harbinger  of  the  day  that  is  to  follow.  When 
a  man  who  is  keeping  the  night  watch  over  his  flocks 


124         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric. 

and  herds  in  the  fields,  or  when  the  sailor  who  stands 
during  the  night-watches  at  the  wheel,  or  when  any 
person  who  has  to  keep  a  vigil  during  the  darkness 
turns  his  eyes  at  the  approach  of  day  towards  the  east- 
ern horizon,  he  gathers  with  truth  from  the  dawning  of 
the  morning  what  manner  of  day  is  to  come.  If,  my 
dear  brethren,  on  that  eastern  horizon  he  sees  the  early 
dawn  and  the  breaking  of  the  orient  light  crossed  by 
angry  clouds,  if  he  sees  there  marks  of  atmospheric 
disturbances,  then  he  concludes  that  the  day  will  be 
stormy;  but  if,  on  the  other  hand,  the  dawn  comes  mild 
and  pure,  and  the  day-star  rises  limpid  and  beaming 
with  undisturbed  light — if  he  notes  no  cloud  across  the 
eastern  vista — if  no  sign  of  angry  atmosphere  be  there — 
then  is  such  a  dawn  the  promise  of  a  day  unclouded  in 
the  beauty  and  wealth  of  its  sunshine.  Even  so  is  it  in 
the  order  of  grace.  The  dealings  of  God  with  man 
were  divided  into  two  great  epochs,  or  days.  The 
first  is  the  day  of  Adam,  of  whom  the  apostle  says: 
The  first  man  of  the  earth  and  earthly.  The  second 
great  epoch  is  the  day  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Second 
Many  who  was  from  heaven  and  heavenly.  Of  others 
the  apostle  makes  no  mention.  He  divides  our 
history  into  those  two  great  days,  and  thus  each  had  an 
aurora,  or  dawning,  in  a  woman.  As  soon  as  we  turn 
to  the  first  historical  evidence  of  our  race  —  when  we 
turn  to  the  East  —  which  tells  us  of  the  origin  of  our 
being,  there  do  we  see  the  aurora,  or  dawn  of  our  history 
in  Eve.  But  scarcely  does  she  appear  on  the  horizon 
when  we  see  hanging  and  clustering  around  her  head 
the  angry  clouds  of  God's  bitter  vengeance,  and  we  hear 
besides  the  voice  of  that  angry  God  in  tones  of  condem- 
nation and  reproach,  like  the  mutterings  of  the  morn- 
ing thunder,  and  we  are  struck  with  terror  to  think  how 
awful  the  day  must  be  that  was  ushered  in  with  so  much 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         125 

promise  of  storm  and  of  anger.  And  sad  surely  that 
day  has  been — a  day  of  earth,  a  day  of  sin  and  of  dark- 
ness, of  which  the  prophet  mournfully  exclaims :  There 
is  no  truthy  there  is  no  knowledge  of  God  left  in  the 
land;  cursing  and  lyings  theft  and  adultery  have  pre- 
vailedy  and  behold!  blood  has  touched  blood.  But,  my 
dear  brethren,  the  second  day  is  approaching,  the  day 
that  will  bring  the  Man  from  heaven^  heavenly — the  day 
that  will  behold  God  and  man  united  in  one  divine 
Person,  united  in  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  — 
the  day  that  will  behold  an  unclouded  age,  darkness 
dissipated,  the  reign  of  sin  destroyed,  and  the  mild 
sway  of  God's  love  and  grace  inaugurated — the  day  that 
will  behold  the  terrible  decree  against  man  erased,  the 
bolts  of  heaven  withdrawn,  and  the  golden  portal 
open  wide  to  us  all.  And  this  day — this  day  of  peace, 
of  happiness,  and  of  benediction  —  had  its  aurora  and 
dawn,  and  that  dawn  was  in  Mary,  the  Immaculate 
Mother  of  the  Man-God.  Oh !  how  different  from  the 
coming  of  the  first  mother.  Eve."  Father  Burke. 

(Good  Friday.  Text :  Christus  pro  nobis  mortuus  est. 
Rom.  V.  9.) 

"There  is  a  something  of  fascination  even  in  the 
ordinary  stories  of  human  sorrow.  They  reach  a 
depth  which  stories  of  human  triumph  cannot  reach. 
They  bring  with  them  a  deeper  pathos,  a  sublimer 
meaning ;  and  they  win  for  those  who  suffer  a  sympathy 
too  sacred  to  be  lavished  on  anything  less  noble  than 
sorrow.  Take  the  lowliest  life  man  ever  lived ;  surround 
it,  if  you  will,  with  every  mean  commonplace  that  can 
strip  human  life  of  the  innate  dignity  that  is  in  it; 
place  a  man  in  what  servile  position  you  will ;  yet  if, 
amidst  all  the  degradation  of  circumstances,  you  throw 
around  him  the  mantle  of  many  sorrows,  he  will  make 


126         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

his  appeal  to  the  compassion  of  the  human  heart ;  and 
his  claim  will  be  allowed,  and  men  who  never  looked 
upon  his  face  will  drop  a  tear  over  the  story  of  his 
sorrows. 

"But  why,  on  a  night  like  this,  do  I  stay  to  speak  of 
merely  human  sorrow?  How  comes  it  that,  with  the 
figure  of  the  dead  Christ  looming  through  the  shadows 
of  the  Church's  mourning,  I  dare  to  turn  my  thoughts 
and  yours  to  any  sorrow  less  sacred  than  the  sorrow 
that  crowned  with  a  crown  of  agony,  the  brow  of  the 
expiring  Saviour?  Ah,  to  me  the  reason  is  obvious.  It 
is  because  the  human  heart  shrinks  back  instinctively 
from  such  a  mystery  of  sorrow  as  we  contemplate  to- 
day. It  is  because,  recognizing  in  sorrows  which,  com- 
pared to  this,  shrink  into  insignificance,  a  depth  we 
almost  fail  to  reach,  we  feel  the  almost  hopelessness  of 
bringing  home  to  ourselves  with  anything  like  com- 
pleteness, the  history  of  our  Saviour's  Passion.  We  go 
up  the  hill  of  Calvary,  as  the  three  disciples  went  up 
Mount  Thabor  ;  as  they,  to  see  Him  glorified,  so  we,  to 
see  Him  wrapped  around,  with  all  the  ignominy  that 
came  of  His  self-sacrifice  ;  and  we,  though  crying  aloud 
lik^  them,  'Lord,  it  is  good  for  us  to  be  here,'  like  them, 
too,  veil  our  faces  before  the  vision,  and  fall  stricken 
to  the  earth  by  the  revelation  of  that  stupendous  mys- 
tery of  sorrow. 

"And  yet,  it  is  not  in  a  spirit  that  is  all  sadness  we 
come  to  celebrate  the  Passion  of  our  Lord.  Though 
the  Church  has  put  aside  her  crimson  and  her  gold,  for 
the  robes  of  mourning;  though  she  has  stripped  her 
altars  of  everything  of  beauty  that  might  seem  a  sign 
of  joy;  though  she  pours  forth  her  pathetic  lamentation 
over  the  blood-shedding  by  which  she  herself  was  pur- 
chased ;  yet  she  cannot  but  look  to  the  things  of  great 
joy  that  lie  beneath  the  surface 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         127 

''And  why  should  it  be  otherwise?  If  Jesus  died,  did 
He  not  die  to  save  the  fallen  world?  If  He  lay  in  agony 
in  Gethsemani,  did  He  not  bear  up  the  burden  of  the 
sins  of  men?  If  hands  and  feet  were  dug  and  side 
pierced,  was  it  not  that  salvation  might  flow  out  upon 
the  world?  And  if  He  hung  three  hours  of  mortal 
agony  upon  the  Cross,  did  He  not  hang  there  an  all- 
atoning  sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  men?  Yes,  if  the 
mystery  of  Calvary  be  a  mystery  of  infinite  sorrow,  it 
is  a  mystery  no  less  of  infinite  love."    Rev.  J..O'Ferrall. 

(Nathanael ;  or,  The  ready  Believer  and  his  Reward. 
Te:st:  Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  him,  Because  I  said 
unto  thee,  I  saw  thee  under  the  fig-tree,  believest  thou? 
thou  shalt  see  greater  things  than  these.    John  i.  50.) 

"Nathanael  was  by  nature  a  man  free  from  cunning 
and  deceit.  He  was  a  specimen  of  that  honest  and 
good  ground  of  which  our  Saviour  speaks  in  the  para- 
ble, upon  which,  when  the  seed  fell,  a  hundredfold 
harvest  was  produced.  We  have  some  such  men  about 
us,  thank  God,  in  this  country :  regular  John  Blunts,  as 
we  say,  clear  as  crystal,  true  as  the  sun  in  the  heavens. 
Many  men  are  well  known  to  us,  who  are  upright, 
truthful,  honest,  candid,  and  open-hearted.  You  might 
trust  them  anywhere  ;  yea,  trust  them  to  repeat  a  con- 
versation without  misrepresenting  it,  and  that  is  saying 
a  good  deal  in  these  times.  Such  people  do  not  under- 
stand the  clever  arts  of  craft  and  cunning,  for  they  do 
not  take  to  them  naturally,  and  have  never  been  trained 
in  the  practice  of  policy.  Speech  is  not  to  them  the 
medium  of  concealing  their  thoughts.  When  they  have 
a  mind  to  speak,  they  speak  their  mind.  You  know 
where  they  are.  They  may  have  great  many  faults, 
but  they  have  not  the  faults  of  deception  and  dis- 
simulation. They  are  Israelites  indeed,  in  whom 
is   no  guile.    You   know  the  kind  of  people:   they 


128         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

may  at  times  speak  too  harshly,  'and  hurt  your 
feelings ;  they  may  put  things  in  an  ugly  shape,  and 
tread  on  people's  corns;  but  they  are  as  straight  as  a 
plumb-line,  and  you  may  be  sure  that  you  know  them 
when  you  have  heard  what  they  say.  In  the  end  they 
cause  far  less  pain  to  people's  feelings  than  those  who 
have  a  great  deal  of  finesse  and  policy,  whose  words 
are  softer  than  butter,  but  inwardly  they  are  drawn 
swords.  Smooth  and  oily  tongues,  with  lying  hearts  at 
the  back  of  them,  are  fit  instruments  for  Satan ;  but 
truth-speaking  lips,  which  are  joined  to  an  honest 
heart,  are  precious  things  which  the  Lord  himself  de- 
lights to  use."  C.  H.  Spurgeon. 

(The  Feast  of  the  Precious  Blood.  Text :  Converse  in 
fear  during  the  time  of  your  sojourning  here^  knowing 
that  you  were  not  redeemed  with  corruptible  gold  or 
silver, .  .  .  but  with  the  precious  blood  of  Christ,  as  of  a 
laynb  unspotted  and  undejiled.    I  Peter  i.  18.) 

"Pope  Pius  IX,  when  in  Gaeta,  the  place  of  his  exile, 
in  1849,  solemnly  instituted  the  feast  of  the  Precious 
Blood,  for  the  first  Sunday  in  July.  That  most  sacred 
stream  is  the  price  of  our  redemption,  and  is  poured 
out  daily  in  the  Holy  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass,  whence  it 
streams  into  the  channels  of  the  seven  Sacraments,  as 
atonement  for  our  sins,  and  for  our  sanctification.  For, 
as  in  Egypt  God  was  propitiated  by  the  blood  of  the 
paschal  lamb,  the  figure  of  the  true  Lamb  of  God,  so  is 
He  propitiated  by  the  blood  of  His  Son,  the  true 
Paschal  Lamb ;  'which  speaketh  better  than  Abel.' 
Heb.  xii,  24.  Herein  is  the  strongest  evidence  of  the 
infinite  love  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  not  only  once,  but 
seven  times,  shed  His  precious  Blood  amidst  the  most 
cruel  sufferings  for  our  salvation.  Let  this  seven-fold 
shedding  of  the  Precious  Blood  be  the  subject  of  our 
present  meditation."  J.  K.  Zollner. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Proposition  and  Division. 

The  Introduction  prepares  the  audience 
to  listen  with  interest  to  the  exposition  of 
the  theme.  To  make  this  exposition  as 
clear  as  possible,  we  must  begin  with  a 
short,  crisp  statement  of  what  we  are  going 
to  say  together  with  an  intimation  more  or 
less  explicit  of  the  order  we  intend  to  ob- 
serve in  saying  it.  This  statement  and  the 
intimation  of  order  accompanying  it  are 
called  the  Proposition  and  the  Division. 
They  may  be  conveyed  in  a  few  sentences ; 
yet  the  wording  of  these  demands  care  and 
skill  to  make  them  dense  with  thought  and 
at  the  same  time  inspiring  and  suggestive. 

NoT:B.  In  recent  years  a  distinction  has  been  drawn 
between  the  subject  and  the  theme  of  a  composition. 
"The  subject  is  the  general  or  class  idea  on  which  the 
production  is  based,  the  most  unrestricted  answer  to 
the  question,  What  shall  I  write  about?  ....  The 
theme  is  the  subject  concentrated,  by  means  of  directive 
limitations,  upon  a  single  issue,  so  that  it  shall  contain 
one  principle  of  division,  one  definite  indication  of 

(129) 


130         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

treatment,  one  suggestion  of  scope  and  limits."  (Ge- 
nung,  Practical  Rhetoric,  pp.  249,  250.)  In  a  sermon, 
then,  the  theme  is  the  subject  viewed  from  one  stand- 
point ;  and  as  the  principle  of  unity  admits  but  one 
theme,  so  it  admits  but  one  standpoint  from  which  the 
subject  is  to  be  viewed  and  expounded.  Hence,  to  take 
two  or  more  standpoints  is  to  make  two  or  more  ser- 
mons. For  example,  if,  at  the  approach  of  Corpus 
Christi  or  the  Forty  Hours'  Devotion,  we  preach  to  our 
people  on  the  most  holy  Eucharist,  this  —  the  Euch- 
arist —  will  be  our  subject.  But  are  we  to  speak  of  it 
in  all  its  extent?  Assuredly  no ;  this  would  be  impos- 
sible in  one  sermon.  We  must,  therefore,  take  some 
particular  view  of  it — treat  it  from  some  definite  stand- 
point —  so  as  to  produce  a  deep,  clear-cut  impression 
on  the  minds  and  hearts  of  our  hearers.  This  particu- 
lar view  of  our  subject  will  be  our  theme. 

1.  The  Proposition  is  simply  the  theme 
expressed  in  clear,  concise,  and  popular 
form.  It  tells  the  particular  view  we  intend 
to  take  of  the  subject;  and,  as  a  sermon  is 
essentially  practical  in  its  aim  or  purpose, 
the  proposition  suggests  or  implies  the 
distinct  spiritual  good  we  endeavor  to  pro- 
duce in  the  audience.  Thus,  if  our  theme 
be:  An  unworthy  Communion,  the  proposi- 
tion will  be  somewhat  as  follows:  ^^To  re- 
ceive Holy  Communion  unvested  with  the 
wedding  garment  of  innocence  and  grace, 
is  of  all  crimes  the  most  awful  and  soul- 
dooming.     To  this  crime  I  now  call  your 


Manual  of  Sacred  EJietoric,         131 

attention ;  and  I  will  endeavor  with  the  help 
of  God's  light  and  grace,  to  represent  to 
you,  if  faintly,  at  least  correctly,  this  ter- 
rible sin  of  an  unworthy  Communion  (divi- 
sion), as  a  compound  of  treachery  and  sacri- 
lege beyond  those  in  every  other  crime. '^ 
(Wiseman.) 

Much  of  the  success  of  a  sermon  depends 
on  the  clear,  crisp  statement  of  the  propo- 
sition. This  should  stimulate  the  interest 
of  the  hearers,  and  at  the  same  time  guide 
the  preacher  and  save  him  from  unnecessary 
digressions.  Above  all,  it  should  keep 
him  from  mixing  together  different  aspects 
of  his  subject  in  the  same  sermon.  For  in- 
stance, if  he  propose  to  speak  of  Forgive- 
ness of  Injuries,  he  should  not  dwell  on 
Almsgiving  or  Fraternal  Correction,  al- 
though all  three  are  duties  arising  from  the 
commandment  of  charity. 

The  proposition  and  definite  object 
should  be  related  to  each  other  as  cause  to 
effect  or  antecedent  to  consequent.  For 
example,  in  a  sermon  on  the  Death  of  the 
Sinner,  the  proposition  may  be :  At  the  hour 
of  death,  ^ ^sinners  are  delivered  to  the  most 
frightful  despair  at  the  view  of  the  eternal 


132         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

misery  which  they  have  deserved ;  so  that 
the  past,  the  present,  and  the  future,  con- 
cur all  at  once  to  make  the  death  of  the 
sinner  a  terrible  scene, — (division)  the  past 
by  its  bitter  regrets,  the  present  by  its 
despair,  and  the  future  by  its  overwhelm- 
ing punishment. '^  (Rev.  F.  X.  McGowan, 
O.  S.  A.)  This  proposition  has  but  one 
obvious,  logical  conclusion,  or  definite  ob- 
ject, namely,  that  we  should  strain  every 
nerve — adopt  every  possible  means — to  save 
ourselves  from  death  while  in  mortal  en- 
mity with  Grod. 

As  a  rule,  it  is  not  advisable  to  mention 
the  definite  object  formally  in  the  proposi- 
tion. Let  the  ostensible  purpose  be  in- 
struction, while  the  more  important  pur- 
pose of  persuasion  runs  in  an  undercurrent 
through  the  whole  sermon,  coming,  how- 
ever, occasionally  to  the  surface  in  appropri- 
ate appeals  to  the  feelings  and  the  will. 

From  what  I  have  said,  the  character- 
istics of  a  well-framed  proposition  may  be 
easily  inferred,  a)  It  should  be  one;  that 
is,  it  should  not  be  made  up  of  two  or  more 
independent  or  loosely  connected  state- 
ments.    The  reason  is  that,  being  the  ex- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.         133 

pression  of  the  theme,  it  should  announce 
the  development  of  the  subject  from  one 
point  of  view  only.  Of  course,  as  I  shall 
show  hereafter,  this  unity  does  not  exclude 
a  variety  of  constituent  elements  on  which 
the  division  of  a  sermon  is  frequently  based, 
b)  The  proposition  should  be  definite;  the 
terms  used  in  it  should  not  be  vague  or  am- 
biguous ;  and  the  truth  or  duty  it  announces 
for  development  should  not  be  wider  or 
more  comprehensive  than  the  actual  exposi- 
tion which  follows,  c)  It  should  be  weighty 
with  suggestive,  stimulating  thought  (gra- 
vis). Gravem  autem  dico  propositionem, 
writes  Kleutgen,  quae  et  oratoris  dlligentiam 
et  audientium  attentionem  meretur,  excitat,  et 

jiivat Neque  vero  ideo  quaerenda  est 

sententia  valde  acuta  vel  paradoxa;  sed  talis, 
ex  qua  totum  possit  orationis  corpus  aliquid 
novitatis,  multum  venustatiSy  plurimum  utili- 
tatis  et  contentionis  accipere.  d)  The  matter 
of  the  proposition  should  be  adapted  to  the 
preacher,  to  the  audience,  and  to  the  time, 
place  and  other  circumstances  in  which  the 
sermon  is  delivered.  This  characteristic 
may  at  first  sight  seem  so  obvious  that  it 
does  not  need  to  be  mentioned ;  yet  we  have 


134         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

it  on  good  authority  that  mal  a  propos  ser- 
mons are  sometimes  preached  from  the 
American  pulpit. 

Illusteation.  ^'I  once  listened  to  a 
visiting  clergyman  condemning  in  vehement 
language,  low-necked  dresses  where  their 
use  was  utterly  unknown,  and  where  the 
censure  had  as  little  application  as  it  would 
have  had  among  the  inhabitants  of  the 
arctic  regions.  I  heard  of  a  young  minister 
of  the  Grospel  who  delivered  a  homily  on 
the  ravages  of  intemperance  before  an  audi- 
ence composed  exclusively  of  pious,  un- 
married ladies  who  hardly  knew  the  taste  of 
wine,  and  still  less  that  of  stronger  drink. 
I  heard  of  another  who  preached  on  the 
duties  of  married  life  before  a  community 
of  nuns  and  aged  inmates.''  (Cardinal 
Gribbons,  in  ^^ The  Ambassador  of  Christ.'') 

2.  Division.  Some  preachers  seem  to 
think  that  every  sermon  should  have  two 
or  three  ^  ^points"  at  least.  Hence  they 
either  divide  their  subject-matter  factiti- 
ously or  they  crowd  so  much  of  it  into  each 
division  and  the  connexion  between  part 
and  part  is  so  loose  that  they  really  preach 
two  or  three  sermons  instead  of  one.    They 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.  135 

forget  that  unity  is  an  essential  requirement 
of  every  sermon,  and  that  it  is  much  better 
to  bring  one  truth  home  to  the  heart,  than 
a  hundred  to  the  intellect,  of  their  audi- 
ence. 

There  are  some  themes,  no  doubt,  to 
which  full  justice  cannot  be  done  without 
division ;  and  it  cannot  be  denied  that  many 
of  the  masterpieces  of  pulpit  eloquence  that 
have  come  down  to  us  have  their  parts,  or 
points,  formally  noted:  yet,  of  the  two 
forms  of  sermon,  the  divided  and  the  un- 
divided, the  latter  approaches  more  closely 
the  ideal  of  preaching.  It  does  not  dissipate 
the  attention  of  the  audience  by  diversity  of 
matter;  it  does  not  overtax  the  memory; 
its  persistent  adherence  to  one  point  has  in 
it  a  momentum  that  acts  on  the  will  as  no 
multiplicity  of  considerations  could  act. 

And  there  will  be  no  want  of  variety  in 
such  a  sermon,  if  we  expound  the  proposi- 
tion by  definition,  illustration,  and  histor- 
ical development,  and  enforce  the  practical 
lesson  contained  in  it  by  appropriate 
motives.  It  is  quite  true  that  more  pro- 
found study  of  the  theme  is  required  for  an 
undivided  than  for  a  divided  sermon ;  but 


136         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric. 

the  extra  labor  will  be  richly  rewarded,  not 
by  the  greater  benefit  of  the  audience  only, 
but  by  the  mental  and  spiritual  culture 
effected  in  the  preacher  himself. 

Division,  however,  is  necessary  in  many 
sermons ;  hence,  some  notion  of  its  nature 
and  qualities  must  be  given  here. 

A  proposition  may  be  analyzed  and  it 
may  be  divided.  It  is  analyzed  when  we 
take  apart  and  explain  the  elements  that 
constitute  it.  This  analysis  is  the  main 
office  of  definition.  It  is  divided  when  we 
enumerate  the  particular  propositions  which 
it  comprises.  For  example,  in  the  proposi- 
tion, scandal  is  spiritual  murder,  analysis 
takes  each  of  the  three  words,  scandal,  mur- 
der, and  spiritual,  and  explains  its  mean- 
ing. Division,  on  the  other  hand,  confines 
itself  to  the  subject  scandal^  and  enumerates 
its  different  kinds — scandal  in  word,  in  act, 
or  in  omission,  diabolical  scandal,  simply 
direct  scandal  (simpliciter  tale)^  scandal  of 
the  weak,  pharisaical  scandal.  With  each 
of  these  forms,  except  the  last,  it  connects 
the  predicate  spiritual  murder,  thus  break- 
ing up  the  general  proposition  into  the  par- 
ticular propositions  contained  in  it. 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric,         137 

The  logical  division  here  described  is  not 
often  used  to  supply  ^^the  points^  ^  of  a  ser- 
mon. Some  propositions,  indeed,  do  not 
admit  of  this  division,  as  their  subjects  are 
singular  terms;  while  others,  if  so  divided, 
would  supply  insufficient  material  for  ex- 
position and  at  the  same  time  exclude  much 
practical  instruction.  Moreover,  definition 
in  its  widest  sense  includes  logical  division ; 
for  we  cannot  be  said  to  have  full  know- 
ledge of  what  is  defined  unless  we  know  its 
extension,  that  is,  the  particular  objects, 
facts,  or  truths  which  it  comprises.  For 
this  reason  preachers  very  often  give  under 
the  head  of  definition  not  only  the  essential 
elements  of  the  thing  explained,  but  also  its 
different  kinds  or  classes.  Their  division 
into  parts  or  points  they  make  on  another 
principle. 

What,  then,  is  the  principle  on  which  the 
proposition  of  a  sermon  ought  to  be  divided? 
Manifestly,  the  attainment  of  the  definite 
object.  We  speak  to  our  people  with  a 
distinct  practical  end  in  view;  therefore, 
every  thing  we  say  must  conduce  to  this 
end;  and  not  only  what  we  say,  but  the 
order  in  which  we  say  it.    The  requirements 


138         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric. 

of  logic  or  of  literary  taste,  however  bind- 
ing in  other  forms  of  composition,  must,  if 
necessary,  give  way  in  a  sermon  to  the 
order  most  helpful  to  inspire  the  will  to 
action  through  enlightenment  of  the  under- 
standing and  appeal  to  the  feelings. 

The  character  of  the  audience  we  address 
has  much  to  do  with  the  division  of  a  ser- 
mon. Fine  reasoning  has  but  slight  in- 
fluence on  the  uneducated,  and  subtle 
distinctions  absolutely  bewilder  them. 
Hence,  a  member  of  a  division  that  could 
not  be  satisfactorily  expounded  without  re- 
course to  such  reasoning  and  distinctions 
ought  to  be  excluded  from  an  ordinary 
Sunday  sermon.  Take  for  example  the 
following  arrangement  of  matter  in  a  ser- 
mon on  the  Greatness  of  Mary:  ^^Let  us 
follow  all  the  degrees  of  the  humiliation  of 
Mary.  I  can  perceive  three  of  them  in  par- 
ticular —  first  the  almost  impenetrable  ob- 
scurity which  concealed  all  her  titles  to  glory 
during  the  course  of  her  mortal  life;  sec- 
ondly, the  profound  abjection  into  which 
she  was  plunged  by  the  ignominies  of  her 
Son  •,  and  thirdly  —  what  affected  her  heart 
more  deeply —  the  apparent  coldness  which 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric,         139 

she  experienced,  even  to  the  end,  from  this 
only  and  beloved  Son.^'  The  reasoning  by 
which  these  degrees  of  humiliation  are  made 
to  show  the  greatness  of  the  Mother  of  God 
is  altogether  too  subtle  for  the  popular 
mind. 

To  find  the  most  useful  division  of  our 
proposition,  we  ought  to  bring  ourselves  in 
imagination  to  a  level  with  our  audience, 
enter  into  their  thoughts,  determine  the 
limits  of  their  knowledge  of  our  theme,  ex- 
amine the  prejudices,  passions,  errors,  dif- 
ficulties, we  shall  have  to  overcome,  and 
the  most  practical  means  of  overcoming 
them.  Many  sermons,  ably  and  laboriously 
prepared,  bear  scant  fruit,  because  the 
preacher  takes  no  account  of  the  special 
character  and  requirements  of  him  he  has 
to  address.  When  these  are  well  weighed 
and  kept  in  mind,  it  is  easy  to  determine 
what  should  be  put  first,  what  in  the  second 
and  the  third  place,  to  attain  our  object. 
The  intellectual  comes  before  the  emo- 
tional; the  theoretic  before  the  practical; 
the  Written  Word  before  its  interpretation ; 
the  authority  of  the  Church,  before  the 
evidence  of  intellect  or  sense ;  the  motive  of 
repulsion,  before  the  motive  of  attraction. 


140         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

In  most  doctrinal  sermons,  the  terms 
used  in  enunciating  the  doctrine  may  be 
used  as  the  members  of  division.  Thus, 
for  example,  a  sermon  on  the  "words  of  the 
Creed,  ^^I  believe  in  God,'^  is  naturally 
divided  into  two  parts,  the  first  explaining 
the  nature  of  faith,  and  the  second  what  we 
know  about  Grod.  In  treating  of  the  Sacra- 
ments, however,  the  divisions  of  theology 
are  simple  and  obvious,  and  ought  to  be 
preferred  to  all  others.  If  our  theme  be 
some  event,  such  as  Death,  Judgment,  the 
Incarnation,  etc.,  we  may  arrange  our 
matter  under  the  heads  of  cause,  conse- 
quences, lesson;  or  we  may  take  some 
prominent  circumstances  connected  with 
the  event  —  certainty  and  uncertainty;  with 
preparation,  without  preparation;  before, 
during,  after. 

For  moral  sermons,  the  time-honored 
division  of  the  theme  into  1)  what  is  to  be 
done,  2)  how  it  is  to  be  done,  and  3)  why 
it  is  to  be  done,  is  made  on  broad  lines  and 
can  scarcely  be  excelled.  In  preaching  on 
Prayer,  for  example,  we  explain,  first,  the 
nature  of  the  duty,  secondly,  its  practice, 
or  how  to  pray,  and,  thirdly,  the  motives 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.  141 

that  should  induce  us  to  pray.  Sometimes 
the  nature  of  the  virtue,  vice,  or  duty  about 
which  we  speak  may  require  no  explana- 
tion, in  which  case  the  first  part  of  our  ser- 
mon should  be  made  to  consist  of  the  doc- 
trinal foundation  of  the  moral  obligation. 
Indeed,  in  speaking  of  the  nature  of  any 
virtue,  we  should  insist  strongly  on  this 
doctrinal  foundation.  Likeness  to  God  or, 
as  St.  Paul  puts  it,  conformity  to  the 
image  of  His  Son,  is  for  every  one  a  neces- 
sary condition  of  salvation.  This  likeness 
or  conformity  is  established  by  sanctifying 
grace  and  the  virtues  and  gifts  infused  with 
it,  and  it  is  maintained  and  increased  by 
the  exercise  of  those  virtues.  The  meek- 
ness, humility,  patience,  charity  of  our 
divine  Lord  should  be  alluded  to  frequently 
as  the  ideal,  the  exemplar  of  all  true  Chris- 
tian living.  Besides,  the  closest  conformity 
that  man  can  reach  here  on  earth  consists 
in  the  union  of  his  will  by  perfect  obedience 
with  the  will  of  God.  Now  the  will  of  God 
is  revealed  to  us  in  His  law,  and  this  is 
adequately  fulfilled  only  by  the  practice  of 
the  theological  and  moral  virtues. 

Note.     The  relation  of  the  virtues,  theological  and 
moral,  to  the  economy  of  Redemption  is  treated  ex- 


142         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

haustively  by  St.  Thomas  in  1.  q.  93,  o.,  1.  2.  qq.  61,  62, 
and  in  the  Summa  c.  Gent.,  lib.  3,  cap.  17,  18,  19. 

In  treating  of  the  moral  virtues,  it  is  of  vital 
importance  to  point  out  that,  unless  super- 
naturalized,  they  do  not  merit  any  eternal 
reward.  They  differ  specifically  from  the 
moral  virtues  infused  with  sanctifying 
grace,  although  the  external  actions  in 
which  both  terminate  are  substantially  the 
same. 

The  attention  of  the  audience  should  be 
directed  as  little  as  possible  to  the  members 
into  which  a  sermon  is  divided.  In  fact, 
the  ideal  of  division  is  so  to  conceal  it  under 
the  clear,  progressive  flow  of  thought  that 
it  will  not  be  recognized  as  such  by  the 
audience.  Make  them  look  intently  at  the 
truth  or  duty  you  are  explaining;  make 
it  appear  more  and  more  luminous  in  each 
succeeding  stage  of  development;  make 
them  apply  it  to  themselves  by  an  earnest, 
practical  resolution:  and  they  will  be  so 
absorbed  in  this  vital  work,  that  they  will 
pay  no  more  direct  attention  to  the  dif- 
ferent points  of  your  sermon,  than  they  do 
to  the  sun  when  it  shows  them  a  beautiful 
landscape.  It  follows  from  this,  that  the 
division  of    a  sermon  ought   not   be  an- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.         143 

nounced  formally  in  connexion  with  the 
proposition.  Yet  an  informal  and  covert 
intimation  of  it  arouses  interest  and  expec- 
tation, and,  therefore,  should  not  be 
omitted. 

Note.  I  feel  all  the  responsibility  of  throwing  over- 
board the  venerable  custom  of  announcing  formally 
each  point  of  a  sermon ;  still  I  do  so  deliberately  and 
without  any  qualm  of  regret.  The  traditional  **first," 
^'secondly,"  "thirdly," — perhaps  also,  "fourthly," 
"fifthly,"  —  served  no  good  purpose;  they  interrupted 
the  continuity  of  the  discourse ;  they  prejudiced  the 
young  against  sermons ;  and  they  held  out  a  strong 
temptation  to  the  audience  to  relax  their  attention  and 
interest  at  each  formally  announced  division. 

The  qualities  of  a  good  division  may  be 
easily  inferred  from  its  nature  and  purpose. 
1.  It  should  be  brief  that  is,  made  up  of 
few  members.  2.  It  should  be  simple.  A 
metaphysical  or  paradoxical  division  over- 
taxes the  thinking  power  of  an  audience. 
Bourdaloue  divided  his  celebrated  sermon 
on  Faith  into  two  parts  —  Faith  saves ; 
Faith  condemns;  but  this  division,  how- 
ever sanctioned  by  the  usage  of  his  day  or 
by  the  character  of  his  audience,  would  not 
be  suitable  to  an  ordinary  American  con- 
gregation. 3.  It  should  be  adequate ^  or  ex- 
haustive, covering  the  proposition  precisely 


144         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

and  including  everything  necessary  for  its 
full  and  satisfactory  development.  If  a  ser- 
mon on  Hell  were  to  be  divided  from  the 
twofold  pain  suffered — the  pain  of  loss  and 
the  pain  of  sense  —  the  division  would  be 
inadequate,  because  the  important  element 
of  unending  duration  would  be  omitted. 
This  quality,  however,  is  not  necessary 
when  the  division  is  taken  from  circum- 
stances connected  with  the  theme.  Thus, 
in  a  sermon  on  the  Love  of  Grod,  if  the 
division  be  taken  from  the  motives  that 
urge  men  to  it,  there  is  no  necessity  to  give 
all  those  motives  that  might  be  adduced; — 
the  strongest  and  most  telling  are  sufficient. 
4.  Lastly,  the  division  ought  to  be  adapted 
to  the  attainment  of  the  definite  object. 
This  quality  has  been  sufficiently  explained 
already. 

ExAMPi.ES  OF  Proposition  and  Division. 
1.  On  the  Maternity  of  the  Blessed  Vir- 
gin. ^'This  festival  of  the  Maternity  of  the 
Blessed  Virgin  recalls  to  us  the  illustrious 
virtues  with  which  she  was  endowed,  and 
the  sublime  privileges  with  which  she  was 
invested.  We  will  simply  go  through  a  few 
passages  of  her  life,  and  consider  her  in  her 


Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric.         145 

various  relations  with  her  Son ;  and  see  how 
we  can  trace  those  memorable  events  that 
distinguished  her  in  the  world,  that  have 
raised  her  to  a  place  beside  the  throne  of 
that  Son  in  heaven,  to  her  simple  but  glori- 
ous title  of  ^Mother  of  Jesus^''  (Wise- 
man.) 

2.  The  Eucharist.  ^^What  do  we  find  in 
ancient  Jerusalem?  The  prefiguring  and 
foreshadowing  of  Christ.  What  shall  we 
find  in  the  Heavenly  Jerusalem?  The  pos- 
session of  Christ  without  types  or  shadows. 
What  ought  we  then  to  find  in  the  Church? 
Both  foreshadowing  and  possession.  Fore- 
shadowing, because  we  are  not  yet  capable 
of,  or  prepared  for,  the  vision  of  Christ; 
possession,  because  Christ  has  already  come 
to  satisfy  the  desire  of  mankind.  There- 
fore we  need  the  Eucharist ;  that  is,  some- 
thing which  does  not  give  us  the  shadow 
without  possession,  nor  possession  without 
the  shadow.  See,  brethren,  how  naturally 
and  aptly  the  Eucharist  places  itself  in  the 
history  of  humanity,  for  the  development 
of  the  designs  of  Providence  with  regard  to 
religion,  and  such  is  the  sweet  argument  of 
which  it  is  my  privilege  to-day  to  speak.  ^' 
(P.  Agostino  da  Montefeltro.) 


9**' 


O^ 


-th 


t** 


^^  «f  ^^ 


146         Manual  oj  Sacred  BJietoric, 

3.  Temperance.  ^^Now,  if  you  wish  to 
know  the  glorious  object  for  which  you  are 
associated  in  this  grand  temperance  move- 
ment; if  you  wish  to  know  the  magnifi- 
cent purpose  which  you  should  have  in 
view,  all  you  have  to  do  is  to  reflect  with 
me  upon  the  consequence  and  the  nature  of 
intemperance,  against  which  you  have  de- 
clared war.  Let  me  depict  to  you,  as  well 
as  I  can,  what  intemperance  is  —  what 
drunkenness  is ;  and  then  I  shall  have  laid 
a  solid  foundation  to  the  appeal  which  I 
make  to  you,  not  only  personally  to  per- 
severe in  this  glorious  cause  of  temperance, 
but  to  try,  every  man  of  you,  like  an  evan- 
gelist of  this  holy  Grospel,  to  gather  as 
many  as  you  can  of  your  friends  and  associ- 
ates, and  of  those  whom  your  influence 
reaches,  to  become  members  of  this  most 
salutary  and  honorable  body.  No  man  can 
value  a  virtue  until  he  knows  the  deep  de- 
gradation of  the  opposite  vice.''  (Father 
Burke.) 


CHAPTER  X. 
Narration  and  Description. 

The  body  of  a  sermon  is  mostly  occupied 
with  the  exposition  of  revealed  truth.  This 
exposition  should  be  clear,  interesting,  and 
persuasive;  and  to  make  it  such,  frequent 
examples,  comparisons  and  other  illustra- 
tions are  absolutely  necessary.  They  are 
necessary  to  relieve  the  mind  from  the 
strain  of  continued  serious  thought,  and  to 
stimulate  the  attention  *,  but,  above  all,  they 
are  necessary  to  throw  light  on  the  truth 
expounded  and  to  impress  it  on  the  mind. 
Hence,  exposition  requires  much  help  from 
narration  and  description ;  and  therefore,  I 
think  it  advisable  to  make  a  few  general 
remarks  in  the  present  chapter  on  these 
two  forms  of  discourse. 

Narration  deals  with  .facts  or  occurrences 
which  it  recounts;  description  with  objects, 
character  and  mental  states  which  it  por- 
trays. History  and  biography  belong 
(147) 


148         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

mostly  to  narration,  while  books  of  travel 
abound  in  description. 

1.  Narration  may  be  a  simple  statement 
of  some  transaction  or  it  may  be  a  state- 
ment of  a  series  of  occurrences  culminating 
in  one  of  special  interest,  called  the  denoue- 
ment. The  transactions  or  occurrences 
which  form  the  subject-matter  of  narration 
may  be  either  real  or  imagined.  The  facts 
of  our  divine  Lord's  life  as  well  as  all  others 
sufficiently  authenticated  are  real ;  parables, 
allegories,  and  fables  are  imagined.  Both 
have  their  place  and  use  in  a  sermon. 

As  narration  is  subsidiary  to  exposition 
and  persuasion,  it  must  of  necessity  be 
short.  It  must  also  be  clear  and  simple, — 
it  must  impose  no  strain  on  the  attention  of 
the  audience,  but  rather  be  an  interval  of 
rest  for  the  recovery  of  mental  energy  pre- 
viously expended.  Again,  it  must  be  appo- 
site ;  that  is,  it  must  have  a  manifest  pur- 
pose of  elucidation  or  enforcement ;  and  it 
must  be  capable  of  promoting  it.  An  ex- 
ample, no  matter  how  well  told,  that  has 
only  a  forced  or  remote  application  can 
have  no  motive  but  the  miserable  vanity  of 
the  preacher  j  it  does  not  forward  the  end 


Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric.         149 

of  the  sermon ;  and  although  it  may  give 
pleasure  to  some,  in  those  whose  judgment 
is  worth  anything  it  is  calculated  to  produce 
only  contempt. 

In  narrating  a  transaction  or  series  of 
occurrences,  the  order  of  time  ought  to  be 
generally  followed.  If  the  facts  be  real, 
they  should  be  narrated  faithfully,  and  no 
imaginary  circumstances  should  be  intro- 
duced to  heighten  the  effect. 

NoTK.  A  preacher  familiar  with  the  topography  of 
Palestine  as  well  as  the  manners  and  character  of  its 
people  may  often  add  much  beauty  to  a  Scripture  nar- 
rative by  describing  the  scene  of  the  occurrence.  By 
this  means,  the  events  mentioned  in  the  Gospels  may 
be  made  singularly  vivid  and  interesting.  Bven  local 
or  personal  features  based  on  probable  conjecture  may 
be  introduced  into  the  picture,  provided  we  make  clear 
their  conjectural  character  to  our  hearers.  Observe, 
for  instance,  how  delicately  yet  definitely  Cardinal 
Newman  gives  the  tradition  of  the  Assumption  of  our 
Blessed  Lady  with  an  intimation  of  the  credence  to  be 
given  to  it.  "She,  the  lily  of  Eden,  who  had  always 
dwelt  out  of  the  sight  of  man,  fittingly  did  she  die  in 
the  garden's  shade,  and  amid  the  sweet  flowers  in 
which  she  had  lived.  Her  departure  made  no  noise  in 
the  world.  The  Church  went  about  her  common 
duties,  preaching,  converting,  suffering;  there  were 
persecutions,  there  was  fleeing  from  place  to  place, 
there  were  martyrs,  there  were  triumphs ;  at  length  the 
rumor  spread  abroad  that  the  Mother  of  God  was  no 
longer  upon  earth.     Pilgrims  went  to  and  fro ;   they 


150         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoricf 

sought  for  her  relics,  but  they  found  them  not ;  did  she 
die  at  Ephesus  ?  or  did  she  die  at  Jerusalem  ?  reports 
varied  ;  but  her  tomb  could  not  be  pointed  out,  or  if  it 
was  found,  it  was  open ;  and  instead  of  her  pure  and 
fragrant  body,  there  was  a  growth  of  lilies  from  the 
earth  she  had  touched.  So  inquirers  went  home  mar- 
veling, and  waiting  for  further  light.  And  then  it  was 
said,  how  that  when  her  dissolution  was  at  hand,  and 
her  soul  was  to  pass  in  triumph  before  the  judgment- 
seat  of  her  Son,  the  apostles  were  suddenly  gathered 
together  in  the  place,  even  in  the  Holy  City,  to  bear 
part  in  the  joyful  ceremonial ;  how  that  they  buried  her 
with  fitting  rites ;  how  that  the  third  day,  when  they 
came  to  the  tomb,  they  found  it  empty,  and  angelic 
choirs  with  their  glad  voices  were  heard  singing  day 
and  night  the  glories  of  their  risen  Queen.  But,  how- 
ever we  feel  towards  the  details  of  this  history  (nor  is 
there  anything  in  it  which  will  be  unwelcome  or  diffi- 
cult to  piety),  so  much  cannot  be  doubted,  from  the 
consent  of  the  whole  Catholic  world  and  the  revelations 
made  to  holy  souls,  that,  as  is  befitting,  she  is,  soul 
and  body,  with  her  Son  and  God  in  Heaven,  and  that 
we  are  enabled  to  celebrate,  not  only  her  death,  but  her 
Assumption." 

(On  the  Fitness  of  the  Glories  of  Mary.) 

Narration  is  used  by  preachers  almost  ex- 
clusively for  the  purpose  of  illustration; 
but  it  is  equally  well  adapted  and  should  be 
as  freely  used  to  arouse  the  feelings  on  be- 
half of  the  definite  object.  "Suavis  nar- 
ratio  esty^^  writes  Cicero,  ^^quae  hahet  ad- 
mirationeSy   expectationes y   exitus  inopinatoSy 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         151 

motus  animoruniy  coUoquia  personarum,  do- 
lores  y  iracundias,  motus ^  laetitias,  cupidita- 
tes.^^  It  may  not  be  always  easy  to  find 
facts  the  narration  of  which  will  produce 
those  emotions;  and  even  when  we  have 
found  them,  much  taste  and  skill  are  re- 
quired in  our  style  and  delivery  to  bring 
out  their  full  effect.  It  is  probably  on 
account  of  such  difficulties  that  preachers 
rarely  use  narration  in  the  conclusion  of 
their  sermons.  Yet  the  every-day  life  of  a 
parish  as  well  as  the  daily  newspaper  sup- 
plies numerous  pathetic  and  other  emotional 
incidents  well  calculated  to  touch  and 
arouse  feeling ;  and  a  priest  of  earnest  pur- 
pose will  not  find  much  trouble  in  collect- 
ing those  incidents  for  future  use  in  the 
pulpit.  The  style  and  delivery  used  in 
presenting  them  must  be  acquired  by  prac- 
tice. 

2.  Description.  This  is  the  accurate 
portrayal  of  persons  or  things.  It  not  only 
adds  much  beauty  to  a  sermon,  but  it  is 
most  useful  in  engaging  the  attention  of  an 
audience  and  inspiring  interest  in  the  ex- 
position of  truth.  It  bears  much  the  same 
relation  to  a  sermon  that  the  '^compositio 
locV^  of  St.  Ignatius  bears  to  a  meditation. 


152         Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric. 

Description  has  for  its  subject-matter 
everything  that  can  be  portrayed  in  words, 
— persons,  places  and  objects,  as  well  as 
mental  states,  such  as  sorrow,  remorse, 
pity,  desire,  etc.  It  is  generally  found  in 
combination  with  other  forms  of  discourse, 
particularly  with  narration.  It  is  difficult, 
indeed,  to  narrate  an  occurrence  with  any 
satisfaction  to  the  hearer  unless  we  describe 
the  actors  in  it  and  give  some  idea  of  the 
place  where  it  happened. 

A  description  of  the  surrounding  scenery, 
when' it  can  be  given,  is  generally  an  appro- 
priate and  agreeable  setting  for  an  exposi- 
tion of  our  Saviour's  words  and  actions.  It 
need  not  be  minute,  but  the  details  given 
should  be  vivid  and  striking. 

The  chief  use,  however,  of  Description  in 
sermons  is  to  depict  mental  states.  The 
unrest,  the  remorse,  the  agony  of  a  believ- 
ing soul  enmeshed  in  a  habit  of  sin,  if  well 
described,  will  exercise  a  powerful  influence 
on  an  audience,  because  each  one's  experi- 
ence will  recognize  the  truth  of  the  descrip- 
tion. Yet  there  are  few  processes  of  com- 
position more  difficult  than  this  portrayal 
of  the  interior  working  and  state  of  the 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric .         153 

soul.  Many  of  us  have  not  acquired  the 
habit  of  introspection  that  is  absolutely 
necessary  for  the  undertaking ;  and,  more- 
over, we  have  but  few  words  in  our  lan- 
guage to  express  with  exactness  purely  men- 
tal acts  and  states.  Hence  direct  descrip- 
tion of  the  interior  movements  of  the  soul 
should  be  rarely  attempted;  it  is  much 
easier  and  better  to  give  the  outward  mani- 
festations and  effects  of  those  movements. 

The  descriptions  introduced  into  a  ser- 
mon ought  to  be  brief.  As,  in  general,  they 
are  ancillary  to  exposition,  they  should  not 
be  allowed  to  push  it  into  the  background 
or  absorb  an  undue  share  of  interest  and 
importance.  Some  preachers  who  have  a 
special  talent  for  description  devote  alto- 
gether too  much  space  to  word-painting. 
They,  no  doubt,  produce  a  pleasing  impres- 
sion on  an  audience ;  but  it  is  questionable 
if  their  sermons  are  productive  of  salutary 
results.  They  seem  to  make  numerous  ad- 
mirers for  themselves,  but  few  converts  to 
the  higher  life. 

To  acquire  facility  and  skill  in  the  art  of 
description,  writers  distinguished  as  word- 
painters  should  be  read  slowly  and  thought- 


154         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric. 

fully,  and  tlieir  most  striking  passages  or 
sketches  should  be  analyzed,  copied,  and 
reproduced  in  our  own  words,  with  the  pur- 
pose of  mastering  the  secret  of  their  suc- 
cess. 

In  modern  prose  literature  Carlyle,  De 
Quincey,  and  Euskin  stand  preeminent  as 
word-painters;  but  for  artistic  delineation 
of  mental  states  De  Quincey  is  unsurpassed 
by  any  other  modern  writer.  We  need  not, 
however,  go  outside  the  Church  for  a  model 
of  exquisite  descriptive  writing.  Many  of 
Father  Faber's  Spiritual  Works  abound  in 
beautiful  word-pictures,  not  only  of  persons 
and  material  objects,  but  also  of  every 
emotional  state  of  the  mind.  His  work  en- 
titled ''The  Foot  of  the  Cross^^  will  be 
found  particularly  useful  to  young  preachers 
in  this  respect. 

The  description  of  sacred  persons  of 
whom  we  may  have  occasion  to  speak  in 
the  course  of  a  sermon,  should  consist  of 
characteristics  grounded  on  Sacred  Scrip- 
ture or  authentic  history.  Mere  possibility 
or  even  likelihood  does  not  justify  us  in  de- 
fining and  individualizing  persons  left  un- 
defined—  perhaps  purposely  —  in  the  in- 
spired writings. 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         155 

As  to  the  vividness  of  coloring  used  in 
description,  a  delicate  problem  arises.  ^ ^Re- 
fined'^  taste  abhors  flaring  colors  in  liter- 
ature as  well  as  in  dress  and  in  painting. 
The  horrors  of  an  impenitent  death,  of  a 
soul  condemned  at  Judgment,  of  the  eter- 
nal fire  of  Hell  are  acutely  painful  to  it. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  general  run  of 
people  are  grimly  attracted  by  descriptions 
of  such  things  and  are  benefited  by  them. 
Is  a  priest,  then,  guilty  of  an  offense 
against  what  is  called  refined  taste  when  he 
gives  a  harrowing  picture  of  some  object 
connected  with  his  sermon?  I  know  some 
who  think  so;^ — persons  who  sneer  at  those 
lurid,  but  truthful  descriptions  of  the  con- 
sequences of  sin,  given  in  missions  and  re- 
treats. There  are  priests,  too,  who  are  in- 
fluenced by  such  sneers  and  who  preach 
unemotional,  colorless  sermons  because  they 
wish  to  please  one  or  two  would-be  high- 
toned  families  in  their  congregation.  Such 
conduct  is  not  only  unworthy  but  criminal 
in  a  minister  of  the  Grospel.  Yet  I  do  not 
deny  that  mistaken  zeal  sometimes  leads 
preachers  into  the  opposite  extreme  of 
grossly  exaggerated  descriptions  of  death, 


156         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric. 

and  judgment  and  hell,  of  the  fewness  of 
the  elect  and  the  irredeemable  damnation 
of  the  world.  I  cannot  help  suspecting  that 
it  is  not  all  zeal  that  inspires  those  men  to 
extend  without  warrant  the  simple  words  of 
Sacred  Scripture.  But  whatever  be  their 
motive,  they  are  quite  as  guilty,  consciously 
or  unconsciously,  of  perverting  revealed 
truth  as  those  who  attempt  to  minimize  its 
terrors.  Apostolic  men  fell  into  neither 
extreme.  They  exaggerated  nothing ;  they 
kept  within  the  ordinary,  traditional  teach- 
ing of  the  Church;  they  tried  not  to 
heighten  the  effect  of  their  descriptions  by 
recounting  pious  beliefs,  apposite  miracles, 
or  private  revelations  without  strict  invest- 
igation of  their  truth.  Still  those  men 
preached  with  an  earnestness  and  a  vehe- 
mence and  an  impassioned  fervor  which  we 
may  strive  to  emulate  but  can  never  expect 
to  surpass. 

EXAMPLES. 

"It  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  that 
this  devotion  of  the  Month  of  Mary  sprang  np  in  the 
Catholic  Church  ;  and  the  circumstances  of  its  origin 
are  most  wonderful.  Some  seventy  years  ago,  or  there- 
abouts, a  little  child  —  a  poor  little  child  —  scarcely 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         157 

come  to  the  use  of  reason,  on  a  beautiful  evening  in 
May,  knelt  down,  and  began  to  lisp  with  childish  voice 
the  Litany  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  before  the  image  of 
the  Child  in  the  arms  of  the  Madonna,  in  one  of  the 
streets  of  Rome.  One  little  child  in  Rome,  moved  by 
an  impulse  that  we  cannot  account  for  —  apparently  a 
childish  freak  —  knelt  down  in  the  public  streets  and 
began  saying  the  Litany  that  he  had  heard  sung  in  the 
church.  The  next  evening  he  was  there  again  at  the 
same  hour,  and  began  singing  his  little  litany  again. 
Another  little  child,  a  boy,  on  his  passage  stopped,  and 
began  singing  the  responses.  The  next  evening  three 
or  four  other  children  came,  apparently  for  amuse- 
ment, and  knelt  before  the  same  image  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin,  and  sang  their  litany.  After  a  time  —  after  a 
few  evenings  —  some  pious  women,  the  mothers  of  the 
children,  delighted  to  see  the  early  piety  of  their  sons 
and  daughters,  came  along  with  them,  and  knelt  down, 
and  blended  their  voices  in  the  litany  ;  and  the  priest 
of  a  neighboring  church  said :  'Come  into  the  church, 
and  I  will  light  a  few  candles  on  the  altar  of  the 
Blessed  Virgin,  and  we  will  all  sing  the  litany  to- 
gether.' And  so  they  went  into  the  church;  they 
lighted  up  the  candles,  and  knelt,  and  there  they  sang 
the  litany.  He  spoke  a  few  words  to  them  about  the 
Blessed  Virgin,  about  her  patience,  about  her  love  for 
her  divine  Son,  and  about  the  dutiful  veneration  in 
which  she  was  held  by  her  Son.  From  that  hour  the 
devotion  of  the  month  of  May  spread  throughout  the 
whole  Catholic  world ;  until  within  a  few  years,  where- 
ever  there  was  a  Catholic  church,  a  Catholic  altar,  a 
Catholic  priest,  or  a  Catholic  to  hear  and  respond  to 
the  litany,  the  month  of  May  became  the  month  of 
Mary,  the  month  of  devotion  to  the  Blessed  Virgin." 

Father  Burke. 


158         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

"The  poor  infant  passes  through  his  two,  or  three,  or 
five  years  of  innocence,  blessed  in  that  he  cannot  yet 
sin ;  but  at  length  (oh  woeful  day!)  he  begins  to  realize 
the  distinction  between  right  and  wrong.  Alas,  sooner 
or  later,  for  the  age  varies,  but  sooner  or  later  the  aw- 
ful day  has  come ;  he  has  the  power,  the  great,  the 
dreadful,  the  awful  power  of  discerning  and  pro- 
nouncing a  thing  to  be  wrong,  and  yet  doing  it.  He 
has  a  distinct  view  that  he  shall  grievously  offend  his 
Maker  and  Judge  by  doing  this  or  that ;  and  while  he 
is  really  able  to  keep  from  it,  he  is  at  liberty  to  choose 
it,  and  to  commit  it.  He  has  the  dreadful  power  of 
committing  a  mortal  sin.  Young  as  he  is,  he  has  as 
true  an  apprehension  of  that  sin,  and  can  give  as  real 
a  consent,  as  did  the  evil  spirit,  when  he  fell.  The  day 
is  come,  and  who  shall  say  whether  it  will  have  closed, 
whether  it  will  have  run  out  many  hours,  before  he  will 
have  exercised  that  power,  and  have  perpetrated,  in 
fact,  what  he  ought  not  to  do,  what  he  need  not  do, 

what  he  can  do  ? Poor  child  !  he  looks  the  same 

to  his  parents.  They  do  not  know  what  has  been  going 
on  in  him;  or  perhaps,  did  they  know  it,  they  would 
think  very  little  of  it,  for  they  are  in  a  state  of  mortal 
sin  as  well  as  he.  They,  too,  long  before  they  knew 
each  other,  had  sinned,  and  mortally  too,  and  were 
never  reconciled  to  God ;  thus  they  lived  for  years,  un- 
mindful of  their  state.  At  length  they  married  ;  it  was 
a  day  of  joy  to  them,  but  not  to  the  angels ;  they  might 
be  in  high  life  or  in  low  estate,  they  might  be  pros- 
perous or  not  in  their  temporal  course,  but  their  union 
was  not  blessed  by  God.  They  gave  birth  to  a  child ; 
he  was  not  condemned  to  hell  on  his  birth,  but  he  had 
the  omens  of  evil  upon  him,  it  seemed  that  he  would 
go  the  way  of  all  flesh:  and  now  the  time  has  come; 
the  presage  is  justified ;  and  he  willingly  departs  from 


Manual  oj  Sacred  Bhetoric.         159 

God.  At  length  the  forbidden  fruit  has  been  eaten; 
sin  has  been  devoured  with  a  pleased  appetite ;  the 
gates  of  hell  have  yawned  upon  him,  silently  and  with- 
out his  knowing  it;  he  has  no  eyes  to  see  its  flames, 
but  its  inhabitants  are  gazing  upon  him ;  his  place  in  it 
is  fixed  beyond  dispute ;  —  unless  his  Maker  interfere 
in  some  extraordinary  way,  he  is  doomed." 

Cardinal  Newman. 

*'The  mothers  at  once  understood  Jesus  Christ ;  their 
heart  deceived  them  not;  and  high  and  transcendent 
as  were  His  words,  though  the  end  to  be  attained 
seemed  something  away  from  the  earth,  though  hence- 
forth the  crown  of  maternal  dignity  must  be  something 
holy  and  austere,  yet  when  the  mothers  heard  that 
sublime  and  tender  voice  saying,  'Suffer  the  little  chil- 
dren to  come  to  Me,  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven,' 
they  ran  to  Him. 

"And  from  that  day,  after  that  word,  how  delightful 
it  is  to  see  in  the  Gospel  how  our  Lord  scarcely  again 
walked  on  the  earth  without  being  surrounded  by  chil- 
dren and  their  mothers.  ^ 

"With  that  infallible  instinct  whereby  the  heart 
knows  where  love  exists,  these  poor  mothers  came  to 
Jesus  Christ  in  full  confidence,  and  brought  their  chil- 
dren to  Him ;  carrying  some  on  their  arms  and  in  their 
bosom,  holding  others  by  the  hand,  they  besought  Him 
graciously  to  touch  them,  to  bless  them,  to  lay  His 
hands  on  them,  and  to  pray  for  them:  ^Oblati  sunt  ei 

parvuli,  ut  manus  eis  imponeret^  et  oraret Af- 

ferebant  ad  ilium  parvulos  et  infantes.^ 

"Our  Lord,  then,  suffered  Himself  to  be  surrounded 
by  all  these  little  children,  and  Himself  coming  close 
to  them.  He  looked  on  them  with  ineffable  love,  He 
sweetly  caressed  them,  with  His  divine  lips  He  touched 


160         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

their  pure  foreheads,  He  placed  His  hands  on  their  in- 
nocent heads,  and  prayed  over  them,  as  their  mothers 
had  besought  Him :  *Et  complexans  eos,  orabat  super 
illos.^ 

*'They  are  so  weak,  so  young;  the  journey  will  be  so 
long  and  so  dangerous,  they  will  meet  with  so  many 
snares  and  deceits !  Ah !  yes,  I  can  understand  that 
their  mothers  would  beseech  the  Saviour  to  pray  for 
them ;  I  feel  that  this  divine  Saviour  would  gather  in 
His  heart  the  tenderest  and  most  powerful  prayers,  and 
that  He  would  say  them  over  these  dear  and  gentle 
children,  to  preserve  them  from  evil,  to  guard  their  in- 
nocence, to  place  them  as  it  were  under  the  shelter  of 
His  love,  at  least  in  these  early  and  pure  joys  of  the 
morning  of  their  life. 

"But  what  is  no  less  charming  to  see  in  the  Gospels, 
is  that  not  only  the  mothers,  but  that  the  children  also 
felt  themselves  drawn  to  our  Lord,  they  understood  the 
confidence  of  their  mothers,  and  they  showed  them- 
selves yet  more  trusting  still 

*'There  are  two  examples  of  this  love  of  the  children 
for  our  Lord,  which  touch  me  specially,  and  which  will 
show  how  great  this  love  was :  thus  following  Him 
even  to  the  heart  of  a  wilderness,  we  see  them  for- 
getting all  the  needs  of  life,  and  that  for  three  days. 
When  our  Lord  miraculously  multiplied  the  loaves  to 
feed  the  fainting  crowd  in  the  midst  of  the  sands  of  the 
desert,  we  find  that  in  this  crowd  were  many  children  ; 
the  Gospel,  enumerating  those  who  had  been  mirac- 
ulously fed,  adds,  ^besides  the  children.'* 

* 'Later,  when  our  Lord,  some  days  before  His  Pas- 
sion, made  His  triumphal  entry  into  Jerusalem,  the 
children  were  there  again  in  the  crowd,  in  the  front : 
these  sweet  children,  who  perhaps  had  been  more  than 
once  blessed  by  Him,  were  there,  joyful  and  delighted  ; 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.         161 

they  climbed  the  trees,  they  cut  the  branches  and 
covered  the  road  with  them,  they  ran  on  before,  they 
came  and  went,  they  announced  His  coming  from  afar, 
they  mixed  their  cries  with  the  acclamations  of  the 
people ;  their  faces  were  radiant,  and  with  the  excite- 
ment and  simplicity  of  their  age,  they  came  into  the 
temple,  and  their  cries  echoed  even  in  the  holy  place : 
*Hosanna  to  the  Son  of  David.*  And  our  Lord  was 
pleased  with  their  homage,  and  with  the  genuine 
shouting  of  the  innocent  voices ;  and  when  the  Phari- 
sees would  have  had  them  silenced.  He  justified  them : 
*Is  it  not  written,'  said  He  to  these  hypocrites,  'that 
out  of  the  mouth  of  babes  and  sucklings  God  has  per- 
fected praise?'  "  Dupanloup. 

"Among  the  objects  which  nature  presents  to  us, 
there  is  nothing,  perhaps,  more  beautiful  than  the 
morning  star.  The  shades  of  night  are  thick  upon  the 
earth;  the  black  clouds  cover  the  firmament;  the 
storm,  it  may  be,  has  passed  in  all  its  fury,  and  swept 
over  the  world  at  the  dark  midnight  hour;  and  men, 
awaked  from  their  slumbers,  have  been  terrified.  The 
sailor  on  the  vasty  deep  has  almost  despaired  of  that 
life  which  he  has  trusted  to  the  treacherous  element 
on  which  he  lives.  But,  when  the  morning  hour  ap- 
proaches, a  faint  light  is  seen  over  the  eastern  hori- 
zon; it  brightens,  crowning  the  Orient  hills  with  a 
golden  splendor.  Out  of  that  light  —  the  promise  of 
the  coming  day,  there  rises  a  pale,  silvery,  beautiful 
star;  trembling,  as  if  afraid  to  encroach  upon  the 
domain  of  night,  it  rises  in  its  solitary  beauty  over  the 
eastern  hills ;  it  tells  of  the  coming  day ;  it  is  the 
herald  and  messenger  of  the  sun,  that  lies  as  yet 
hidden  under  the  eastern  waves,  and  under  the  deep 
shadows  of  the  hills.  The  moment  the  sailor,  in  his 
storm-tossed  bark,  sees  that  star,  he  hails  it  as  the  sure 


162         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

harbinger  of  the  coming  day.  The  moment  the  lonely 
traveller,  out  on  the  desolate  moorland,  perceives  it, 
he  knows  that  presently  his  bewildered  way  will  be 
brightened  by  the  rising  sun.  The  very  hills  seem  to 
bow  in  reverence  toward  the  messenger  of  the  coming 
day.  And  the  star,  meantime,  rises  slowly  above  the 
horizon,  as  resplendent  as  the  moon,  because  of  the 
thickness  of  darkness  around.  Gradually,  the  aureola 
of  the  dawn  of  day  spreads  its  light  across  the  heavens ; 
until,  at  length,  comes  the  splendor  of  the  rising  sun. 
Then  the  morning  star  gradually  loses  itself  in  the 
greater  and  brighter  light.  It  is  a  beautiful  thing  to 
behold  —  the  very  ideal  of  modesty,  in   its  solitary, 

trembling  ascent  towards  heaven Can  anything 

be  imagined  more  beautiful  than  this?  The  world,  as 
it  were,  prepared  for  its  splendor,  by  the  darkness  of 
the  night;  its  beaming,  full  of  hope,  announcing  the 
certainty  of  the  coming  day,  another  bright  day  of  sun- 
shine, to  gladden  the  hearts  of  men.  It  has  the  splen- 
dor of  the  reflected  light  of  the  sun  which  is  to  follow 
in  its  wake,  and  to  rise  upon  that  very  point  of  the 
eastern  horizon  where  the  morning  star  rose  before. 
The  flowers,  drooping  during  the  night,  open  slowly 
their  leaves,  turning  their  petals  towards  the  Bast.  The 
lark,  shaking  the  dew  off  his  wing,  rises  out  of  the 
corn-field  with  a  song  of  gladness,  as  if  ambitious  to 
catch  sight  of  the  rising  sun  before  his  beams  can  shine 
on  earth.  The  herds  in  the  fields  rise  from  their 
nightly  rest  to  greet  the  coming  day.  Can  anything  be 
imagined  more  beautiful  in  nature  than  the  beauty  of 
hope  —  the  beauty  of  its  brightness  —  the  beauty  of  its 
silvery  light,  than  the  beauty  of  the  message  it  brings 
to  this  darkened  earth?  No ;  nothing  can  be  imagined 
more  beautiful  in  nature  than  the  morning  star,  as  it 
rises  over  the  eastern  hills."  Father  Burke. 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         163 

"There,  then,  in  that  most  awful  hour,  knelt  the 
Saviour  of  the  world,  putting  off  the  defences  of  His 
divinity,  dismissing  His  reluctant  angels,  who  in  myri- 
ads were  ready  at  His  call,  and  opening  His  arms,  bar- 
ing His  breast,  sinless  as  He  was,  to  the  assaults  of  His 
foe,  —  of  a  foe  whose  breath  was  a  pestilence,  and 
whose  embrace  was  an  agony.  There  he  knelt,  motion- 
less and  still,  while  the  vile  and  horrible  fiend  clad  His 
spirit  in  a  robe  steeped  in  all  that  is  hateful  and 
heinous  in  human  crime,  which  clung  close  round  His 
heart,  and  filled  His  conscience,  and  found  its  way  into 
every  sense  and  pore  of  His  mind,  and  spread  over 
Him  a  moral  leprosy,  till  He  almost  felt  Himself  that 
which  He  never  could  be,  and  which  His  foe  would  fain 
have  made  him.  Oh,  the  horror,  when  He  looked,  and 
did  not  know  Himself,  and  felt  as  a  foul  and  loathsome 
sinner,  from  His  vivid  perception  of  that  mass  of  cor- 
ruption which  poured  over  His  head  and  ran  down  even 
to  the  skirts  of  His  garments!  Oh,  the  distraction, 
when  He  found  His  eyes,  and  hands,  and  feet,  and  lips, 
and  heart,  as  if  the  members  of  the  Evil  One,  and  not 
of  God !  Are  these  the  hands  of  the  Immaculate  lyamb 
of  God,  once  innocent,  but  now  red  with  ten  thousand 
barbarous  deeds  of  blood?  are  these  His  lips,  not  utter- 
ing prayer,  and  praise,  and  holy  blessings,  but  as  if 
defiled  with  oaths,  and  blasphemies,  and  doctrines  of 
devils?  or  His  eyes,  profaned  as  they  are  by  all  the  evil 
visions  and  idolatrous  fascinations  for  which  men  have 
abandoned  their  adorable  Creator?  And  His  ears, 
they  ring  with  sounds  of  revelry  and  strife ;  and  His 
heart  is  frozen  with  avarice,  and  cruelty,  and  unbelief ; 
and  His  very  memory  is  laden  with  every  sin  which 
has  been  committed  since  the  fall,  in  all  regions  of  the 
earth,  with  the  pride  of  the  old  giants,  and  the  lusts  of 
the  five  cities,  and  the  obduracy  of  Egypt,  and  the  am- 


164         Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric. 

bition  of  Babel,  and  the  unthankfulness  and  scorn  of 
Israel.  Oh,  who  does  not  know  the  misery  of  a  haunt- 
ing thought  which  comes  again  and  again,  in  spite  of 
rejection,  to  annoy,  if  it  cannot  seduce?  or  of  some 
odious  and  sickening  imagination,  in  no  sense  one's 
own,  but  forced  upon  the  mind  from  without?  or  of  evil 
knowledge,  gained  with  or  without  a  man's  fault,  but 
which  he  would  give  a  great  price  to  be  rid  of  once  and 
for  ever?  And  adversaries  such  as  these  gather  around 
Thee,  Blessed  lyord,  in  millions  now ;  they  come  in 
troops  more  numerous  than  the  locust  or  the  palmer- 
worm,  or  the  plagues  of  hail,  and  flies,  and  frogs, 
which  were  sent  against  Pharaoh.  Of  the  living  and 
of  the  dead  and  of  the  as  yet  unborn,  of  the  lost  and  of 
the  saved,  of  Thy  people  and  of  strangers,  of  sinners 
and  of  saints,  all  sins  are  there.    Thy  dearest  are  there, 

Thy  saints  and  Thy  chosen  are  upon  Thee ; but 

not  as  comforters,  but  as  accusers,  like  the  friends  of 
Job,  'sprinkling  dust  towards  heaven,'  and  heaping 

curses  on  Thy  head Hopes  blighted,  vows 

broken,  lights  quenched,  warnings  scorned,  opportun- 
ities lost ;  the  innocent  betrayed,  the  young  hardened, 
the  penitent  relapsing,  the  just  overcome,  the  aged 
failing;  the  sophistry  of  misbelief,  the  wilfulness  of 
passion,  the  obduracy  of  pride,  the  tyranny  of  habit, 
the  canker  of  remorse,  the  wasting  fever  of  care,  the 
anguish  of  shame,  the  pining  of  disappointment,  the 
sickness  of  despair;  such  cruel,  such  pitiable  spec- 
tacles, such  heart-rending,  revolting,  detestable,  mad- 
dening scenes ;  nay,  the  haggard  faces,  the  convulsed 
lips,  the  flushed  cheek,  the  dark  brow  of  the  willing 
slaves  of  evil,  they  are  all  before  Him  now ;  they  are 
upon  Him  and  in  Him."  Cardinal  Newman. 


Manual  of  Sacred  EJietoric.         165 

"St.  John  and  St.  Peter —  the  one  the  symbol  of  the 
contemplative,  the  other  of  the  practical  life  —  are  un- 
doubtedly the  grandest  and  most  attractive  figures  in 
that  Apostolic  band.  The  character  of  St.  John  has 
been  often  mistaken.  Filled  as  he  was  with  a  most 
divine  tenderness  —  realizing  as  he  did  to  a  greater  ex- 
tent than  any  (other)  of  the  Apostles  the  full  depth 
and  significance  of  our  Lord's  new  commandment  — 
rich  as  his  Epistles  and  his  Gospel  are  with  a  medita- 
tive and  absorbing  reverence  —  dear  as  he  has  ever 
been  in  consequence  to  the  heart  of  the  mystic  and  the 
saint  —  yet  he  was  something  indefinitely  far  removed 
from  that  effeminate  pietist  which  has  furnished  the 
usual  type  under  which  he  has  been  represented.  The 
name  Boanerges,  or  'Sons  of  Thunder,'  which  he  has 
shared  with  his  brother  James,  their  joint  petition  for 
precedence  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  their  passionate 
request  to  call  down  fire  from  heaven  on  the  offending 
village  of  the  Samaritans,  the  burning  energy  of  the 
patois  in  which  the  Apocalypse  is  written,  the  impetu- 
ous horror  with  which,  according  to  tradition,  St.  John 
recoiled  from  the  presence  of  the  heretic  Cerinthus,  all 
show  that  in  him  was  the  spirit  of  the  eagle,  which, 
rather  than  the  dove,  has  been  his  immemorial  sym- 
bol. And  since  zeal  and  enthusiasm,  dead  as  they  are, 
and  scorned  in  these  days  by  an  effete  and  comfortable 
religionism,  yet  have  ever  been  indispensable  instru- 
ments in  spreading  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  doubtless 
it  was  the  existence  of  these  elements  in  his  character, 
side  by  side  with  tenderness  and  devotion,  which  en- 
deared him  so  greatly  to  his  Master,  and  made  him  the 
'disciple  whom  Jesus  loved.'  The  wonderful  depth 
and  power  of  his  imagination,  the  rare  combination  of 
contemplativeness  and  passion,  of  strength  and  sweet- 
ness, in  the  same  soul  —  the  perfect  faith  which  in- 


166         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric. 

spired  his  devotion,  and  the  perfect  love  which  pre- 
cluded fear  —  these  were  the  gifts  and  graces  which 
rendered  him  worthy  of  leaning  his  young  head  on  the 
bosom  of  his  lyord. 

*'Nor  is  his  friend  St.  Peter  a  less  interesting  study. 
We  shall  have  many  opportunities  of  observing  the 
generous,  impetuous,  wavering,  noble  impulses  of  his 
thoroughly  human  but  most  lovable  disposition.  Let 
the  brief  but  vivid  summary  of  another  now  suffice.  *It 
would  be  hard  to  tell,'  says  Dr.  Hamilton,  'whether 
most  of  his  fervor  flowed  through  the  outlet  of  adora- 
tion or  activity.  His  full  heart  put  force  and  prompti- 
tude into  every  movement.  Is  his  Master  encompassed 
by  fierce  ruffians?  —  Peter's  ardor  flashes  in  his  ready 
sword,  and  converts  the  Galilean  boatman  into  the  sol- 
dier instantaneous.  Is  there  a  rumor  of  a  resurrection 
from  Joseph's  tomb? — John's  nimbler  foot  distances 
his  older  friend;  but  Peter's  eagerness  outruns  the 
serene  love  of  John,  and  past  the  gazing  disciple  he 
rushes  into  the  vacant  sepulchre.  Is  the  risen  Saviour 
on  the  strand  ?  — his  comrades  secure  the  net,  and  turn 
the  vessel's  head  for  shore;  but  Peter  plunges  over  the 
vessel's  side,  and  struggling  through  the  waves,  in  his 
dripping  coat  falls  down  at  his  Master's  feet.  Does 
Jesus  say,  "Bring  of  the  fish  ye  have  caught?"  —  ere 
anyone  could  anticipate  the  word,  Peter's  brawny  arm 
is  lugging  the  weltering  net  with  its  glittering  spoil 
ashore,  and  every  eager  movement  unwittingly  is 
answering  beforehand  the  question  of  his  Lord,  "Simon, 
lovest  thou  me  ?"  And  that  fervor  is  the  best,  which, 
like  Peter's,  and  as  occasion  requires,  can  ascend  in 
ecstatic  ascriptions  of  adoration  and  praise,  or  follow 
Christ  to  prison  and  to  death ;  which  can  concentrate 
itself  on  feats  of  heroic  devotion,  or  distribute  itself  in 
the  affectionate  assiduities  of  a  miscellaneous  in- 
dustry. ' ' '  Deau  Farrar. 


CHAPTER  XI. 
Exposition  in  General. 

Exposition,  argumentation,  and  persua- 
sion give  their  names  to  three  so-called 
^ 'forms'^  of  literary  composition.  Exposi- 
tion removes  ignorance  or  doubt  regarding 
some  truth;  argumentation  convinces  an 
adversary  of  his  error;  while  persuasion 
leads  the  will  to  action  in  some  definite 
direction. 

Argumentation  has  no  place  in  a  normal 
sermon  intended  for  a  Catholic  audience. 
There  may  be  error  as  to  one  or  other  re- 
vealed truth;  but  it  must  be  removed  by 
exposition,  that  is,  by  a  clear,  authoritative 
statement  of  the  teaching  of  the  Church  re- 
garding it. 

Exposition  enlightens  the  understanding ; 
persuasion  moves  the  will.  This  broad, 
well  defined  distinction,  however  correct  in 
itself,  has  led  many  preachers  into  serious 
errors  and  given  rise  to  a  very  prevalent 
(167) 


168         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric. 

defect  in  sacred  oratory.  It  is  true  that  re- 
vealed doctrine  must  be  expounded  to  the 
understanding,  and  also  impressed  on  the 
will  as  a  vital  principle  of  action.  It  is 
true,  then,  as  a  consequence,  that  exposi- 
tion and  persuasion  are  essential  elements 
of  a  sermon.  But  it  is  not  true  that  one 
part  of  it  should  be  devoted  exclusively  to 
exposition  and  another  to  persuasion.  The 
two  chief  faculties  of  the  soul,  the  under- 
standing and  the  will,  always  work  simul- 
taneously, so  that  neither  is  ever  wholly 
quiescent  in  any  mental  operation.  Even 
in  the  most  abstract  reasoning  there  is  an 
undercurrent  of  interest,  gratification,  or 
repulsion  that  denotes  the  activity  of  the 
will,  though  the  intellect  is  the  principal 
operator.  Keeping  this  truth  in  mind,  the 
preacher  must  adapt  his  exposition  of  doc- 
trine to  the  will  of  his  hearer  as  well  as  to 
his  intellect.  In  other  words,  he  must  not 
only  avoid  everything  in  expression  and 
delivery  that  would  alienate  the  will,  but  he 
must  so  shape  his  teaching  as  to  conciliate 
and  please  it.  The  best  way  of  doing  this 
is  to  create  in  the  hearer  that  intellectual 
satisfaction  which  always  comes  from  the 


Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric.         169 

first  firm  grasp  of  an  interesting  idea  or 
truth.  (This  satisfaction,  though  called  in- 
tellectual, is  in  reality  a  state  of  the  will, 
not  of  the  intellect.) 

The  prosiness  of  sermons  comes  chiefly 
from  preachers  ignoring  the  exigencies  of 
the  will  while  the  intellect  is  being  in- 
structed. They  know  that  if  the  will  be 
not  moved  to  some  definite  action,  the  end 
of  the  sermon  is  not  attained;  but  they 
seem  not  to  know  that  a  first  and  most 
necessary  step  to  move  the  will  is  to  con- 
ciliate and  please  it.  Hence  they  write  and 
deliver  theological  essays  of  more  or  less 
merit,  but  they  do  not  preach. 

Example.  In  the  following  extract  from 
a  sermon  on  the  Church,  the  defect  of  ad- 
dressing the  intellect  exclusively  is  manifest. 
The  ideas  contained  in  it  are  commonplace 
and  uninteresting,  and  the  style  is  dry  and 
unemotional.  Besides,  part  of  the  doctrine 
enunciated  contains  a  false  assumption. 

^^  .  .  .1  have,  therefore,  determined  to- 
day briefly  to  recall  to  your  minds  the  ar- 
guments which  underlie  our  believe  in  the 
Catholic  Church  as  the  true  Church  of 
Christ The  arguments  on  which  our 


170         Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric, 

faith  in  the  Catholic  Church  is  based  we 
shall  find  contained  in  the  answer  to  the 
following  two  questions,  which  will  form 
the  subject  and  division  of  my  discourse — 

1.  Did  Christ  establish  a  Church? 

2.  Which  is  the  true  Church  established 
by  Christ? 

^^1.  Has  Christ  established  a  Church? 

^i.  Christ  is,  as  you  know,  the  Son  of 
God,  true  God  and  true  man,  our  Ee- 
deemer,  or,  as  He  Himself  says :  the  way, 
the  truth,  and  the  life;  the  way  on  which 
we  must  walk ;  the  truth  which  we  must  be- 
lieve ;  and  the  life  which  must  quicken  our 
souls,  if  we  would  attain  our  supernatural 
end.  But  Christ  is  the  Redeemer,  not  only 
of  those  with  whom  He  conversed  here  on 
earth,  but  of  all  men  of  all  ages.  It  was, 
therefore.  His  duty  to  provide  that  not  only 
those  of  His  own  time,  but  all  men  of  all 
times  might  find  the  way,  the  truth  and  the 
life,  and  thus  be  made  partakers  of  the 
work  of  Redemption.  For  this  end,  there- 
fore, He  must  have  provided  some  reliable 
and  efficacious  means,''  etc.,  etc. 

It  is  of  vital  importance,  then,  to  the  suc- 
cess of  a  sermon  that  our  exposition  of  doc- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric,         171 

trine  or  duty  conciliate  the  will,  at  the  same 
time  that  it  enlightens  and  satisfies  the  in- 
tellect. It  should,  therefore,  he  persuasive. 
As  its  aim  is  essentially  practical  —  some 
definite  spiritual  good  of  the  hearer  —  all 
abstract  thought  must  be  excluded  from  it 
that  is  not  directed  to,  and  does  not  cul- 
minate in,  some  salutary  act  of  the  will.  In 
this  respect  the  exposition  of  a  sermon  dif- 
fers fundamentally  from  the  exposition  of 
treatises  and  essays  and  even  of  discourses. 
Exposition  may  be  engaged  either  with 
terms  or  with  truths.  Often,  indeed,  the 
meaning  of  a  truth  is  best  given  by  defining 
and  explaining  the  terms  in  which  it  is 
enunciated;  but,  unlike  terms,  truths  have 
not  to  be  merely  defined — they  have  also  to 
be  illustrated  and  enforced.  Terms,  or 
words,  are  sometimes  so  clear  and  elemen- 
tary, that  to  define  them  would  be  to  trifle 
with  the  patience  of  the  audience.  In  such 
case,  of  course,  they  are  not  to  be  defined; 
yet,  as  I  have  said  in  a  previous  chapter,  it 
is  not  safe  to  credit  an  audience  with  much 
accurate  knowledge  even  of  simple  words 
when  they  express  abstract  ideas;  and  in 
case  of  doubt  it  is  better  to  run  the  risk  of 


172         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

being  a  little  tedious,  than  to  omit  anything 
necessary  for  a  thorough,  satisfactory  know- 
ledge of  the  truth  expounded. 

Exposition  includes  everything  that 
throws  light  on  the  proposition,  or  theme, 
of  a  sermon.  Hence  it  should  contain 
1.  a  clear,  comprehensive  knowledge  of  the 
truth  propounded;  2.  an  account  of  its 
origin  and  history;  and  3.  it  should  let  in 
on  it  all  the  light  that  can  be  drawn  from 
example,  comparison,  contrast,  analogy, 
etc.  Definition,  history,  and  illustration 
may  then  be  taken  as  the  main  forms  of 
Exposition.  I  deliberately  omit  argumen- 
tation, as  I  speak  throughout  this  work 
only  of  a  sermon  preached  to  a  Catholic 
audience  which  is  not  permitted  to  enter- 
tain doubts  on  matters  of  faith.  Argumen- 
tation implies  opposition  or  doubt  in  the 
mind  of  the  hearer ;  and  it  is  wholly  out  of 
place  where  no  one  either  doubts  or  resists. 
However,  under  the  head  of  ^ 'history^ ^  I  in- 
tend that  the  preacher  should  give  every- 
thing that  is  now  given  in  the  form  of  proof 
or  argument. 

The  definition,  history  and  illustration  of 
a  doctrine  contain  everything  that  needs  to 


Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric.         173 

be  said  for  its  fullest  and  most  exhaustive 
elucidation.  As  these  forms  of  Exposition 
correspond  substantially  with  the  loci  of 
Aristotle,  we  may  feel  assured  that  outside 
the  teaching  classified  and  included  under 
them,  no  further  popular  teaching  is  neces- 
sary or,  perhaps,  even  possible  to  a 
preacher.  Some  sacred  orators,  indeed, 
have  aspired  to  soar  above  the  beaten  log- 
ical course  determined  by  the  greatest  mind 
of  antiquity  and  followed  by  minds  but 
slightly  less  great  than  his.  Yet,  although 
they  may  have  dazzled  and  attracted,  they 
have  notably  failed  to  produce  permanent 
practical  results.  Icarus  with  sail  or  oars 
might  have  reached  Sicily  in  safety:  rely- 
ing on  artificial  wings,  he  was  doomed  to 
fail. 

The  loci,  or  topics,  of  Aristotle,  summar- 
ized under  the  three  heads  definition,  history 
and  illustration,  are  divided  into  intrinsic 
and  extrinsic.  The  former  are  given  in  the 
following  words  by  Kleutgen:  ^^Ex  locis  in- 
trinsecis  alii  in  ipsa  rei  natura  et  nomine  siti 
sunt:  definitiOj  genus ^  forma,  enmneratio par- 
tium,  notatio  et  conjugatio;  alii  in  iis,  quae 
cum  re  connexa  sunt:  causae,  effecta,  ante- 


174         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

cedentiay  consequential  adjuncta;  alii  denique 
in  collatione  rei  cum  aliis:  comparatiOy  simili- 
tudo  et  contraria.  Further  on  he  divides  the 
loci  extrinseci  into  those  that  are  common  to 
all  oratory  and  those  that  are  special  to 
each  kind.  The  former  are  testimony  and 
example;  the  latter  (for  preaching),  Sacred 
Scripture,  the  Fathers,  Theology,  Church 
History,  and  approved  writers  on  Christian 
life. 

Note.  Careful  study  of  our  best  and  most  popular 
pulpit  orators  show  us  that  they  were  guided,  consci- 
ously or  unconsciously,  in  their  finding  and  arrange- 
ment of  expository  matter  by  the  Aristotelian  topics. 
The  two  most  eminent  preachers  of  the  present  cen- 
tury, Pere  Lacordaire  and  Father  Burke,  followed 
closely  the  scholastic  method  of  exposition,  which  is 
itself  cast  in  the  Stagirite  mold.  I  cannot,  then,  agree 
with  Dr.  Phelps  in  the  following  remarks  :  ''The  orator- 
ical instinct,  at  least,  claims  freedom  from  such  helps" 
(the  topics  of  Aristotle).  "All  that  criticism  can  do, 
therefore,  for  its  assistance  in  the  matter  of  invention, 
is  to  direct  it  to  the  cultivation  of  the  thinking  power. 
In  actual  composing,  a  writer  must  take  what  comes  to 
him,  with  no  such  elaborate  searching  in  prescribed 
channels  of  inquiry.  I  know  nothing  of  any  process 
of  successful  composition  which  has  not  in  it  a  large 
infusion  of  the  element  which  the  world  calls  chance. 
As  a  Christian  preacher,  I  willingly  give  to  it  a  more 
sacred  name.  That  preacher  is  not  to  be  envied  who 
knows  nothing  in  his  own  experience  of  a  secondary 
fulfillment  of  the  promise  :  It  shall  be  given  to  you  in 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric,         175 

that  same  hour  what  ye  shall  speak.    Yet  divine  sug- 
gestion uses,  not  ignores,  the  laws  of  mind." 

Besides  the  all-important  quality  of  per- 
suasiveness of  which  I  have  already  spoken, 
Exposition  should  also  possess  the  qualities 
of  simplicity,  clearness,  and  conciseness. 
These  qualities  need  no  explanation,  and 
they  will  never  be  wanting  if  we  observe 
two  precautions,  the  first,  to  avoid  mistify- 
ing,  and  the  second,  to  avoid  boring,  our 
audience. 


CHAPTER  XII. 
Definition. 

Definition  is  the  groundwork  of  exposi- 
tion. Its  subject-matter  is  words,  and  its 
object  to  give  a  clear,  distinct,  complete, 
and  comprehensive  knowledge  of  them  and 
of  what  they  stand  for. 

Words  may  be  considered  in  themselves 
or  in  the  things  they  stand  for.  When  con- 
sidered in  themselves,  their  definition  is 
called  nominal;  when  considered  in  the 
things  they  stand  for,  it  is  called  real.  A 
nominal  definition  may  be  taken  from  the 
etymology  of  the  word  defined,  or  it  may 
give  the  meaning  ordinarily  attached  to  it, 
or  it  may  explain  the  special  sense  in  which 
the  speaker  or  writer  uses  the  term.  A  real 
definition  goes  behind  the  name  to  the 
thing  signified  by  it,  of  which  it  gives  a 
clear,  distinct,  complete,  and  comprehen- 
sive notion. 

Note,  a  clear  notion  of  a  thing  enables  us  to  distin- 
guish it  from  everything  else.  A  distinct  notion  con- 
tains all  the  essential   elements  that  constitute   the 

(176) 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric,         177 

thing.  A  notion  is  said  to  be  complete  when  we  can 
analyze  its  essential  elements  down  to  their  simplest 
forms.  Finally,  a  comprehensive  notion  is  not  only 
clear,  distinct,  and  complete ;  but  it  includes  also  the 
knowledge  as  well  of  the  causes  and  effects  of  the 
thing,  as  of  its  properties  and  accidents,  and  its  rela- 
tions to  cognate  things.  Zigliara. 

(Scholastic  philosophy  calls  no  notion 
comprehensive  that  does  not  contain  the 
knowledge  of  the  relations  of  the  thing 
known  ''ad  ordinem  totius  universi.''^  Such 
knowledge  is  beyond  the  reach  of  human 
intelligence.) 

A  nominal  definition  is  sometimes  useful 
as  an  introduction  of  the  thing  to  be  de- 
fined. It  may  also  help  to  enforce  a 
motive;  as  when  we  say:  ^^ You  are  Christi- 
ans, that  is,  followers  —  disciples  of  Christ. 
You  glory  in  the  name ;  yet  what  glory  is 
there  in  a  name  that  condemns  you?  —  a 
name  that  has  nothing  in  your  lives  to 
justify  it,  but  everything  to  discredit  and 
contradict  itT^  Any  further  use  of  the 
nominal  definition  generally  savors  of 
pedantry  and  should  be  avoided. 

The  real  definition,  therefore,  is  the  one 
with  which  we  have  mostly  to  do  here.  It 
is  of  two  kinds,  logical  and  rhetorical.  A 
logical  definition  confines  itself  to  giving 


178         Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric, 

the  essential,  classified  elements  of  the 
thing  defined.  A  rhetorical  definition  goes 
far  beyond  this.  It  explains  everything 
about  an  object  that  is  required  to  have  a 
clear,  distinct,  complete  and  comprehensive 
knowledge  of  it.  It  gives  not  only  its  parts 
and  divisions,  but  its  characteristics,  its 
properties  and  qualities,  its  cause  and 
effects.  Furthermore,  if  any  of  these  de- 
tails be  unfamiliar  to  the  audience,  or  if 
time  be  needed  to  convey  a  deeper  impres- 
sion of  it,  the  speaker  or  writer  keeps  turn- 
ing it  over  and  over  by  the  ordinary  rules 
of  amplification,  until  he  is  satisfied  that  he 
has  made  it  as  distinct  and  luminous  as  the 
occasion  requires.  The  preacher,  in  a  word, 
is  allowed  unrestricted  use  of  every  expedi- 
ent and  form  of  composition  —  illustration, 
narration,  description — to  make  his  rhetor- 
ical definition  as  full  and  complete  as  pos- 
sible. 

Example  of  logical  definition :  Faith  is  a 
theological  virtue  infused  by  Grod,  inclining 
us  to  assent  firmly,  on  account  of  His  truth- 
fulness, to  all  that  He  has  revealed  and 
proposes  to  us  through  the  Church  for  our 
belief. 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.         179 

Example  of  rhetorical  definition:  Faith 
^4s  assenting  to  a  doctrine  as  true,  which 
we  do  not  see,  which  we  cannot  prove,  be- 
cause God  says  it  is  true,  who  cannot  lie. 
And  further  than  this,  since  Grod  says  it  is 
true,  not  with  His  own  voice,  but  by  the 
voice  of  His  messengers,  it  is  assenting  to 
what  man  says,  not  simply  viewed  as  a 
man,  but  to  what  he  is  commissioned  to  de- 
clare, as  a  messenger,  prophet,  or  ambassa- 
dor from  Grod.  In  the  ordinary  course  of 
this  world  we  account  things  true  either  be- 
cause we  see  th^m,  or  because  we  can  per- 
ceive that  they  follow  and  are  deducible 
from  what  we  do  see;  that  is,  we  gain  truth 
by  sight  or  by  reason,  not  by  faith.  You 
will  say  indeed,  that  we  accept  a  number  of 
things  which  we  cannot  prove  or  see,  on  the 
word  of  others ;  certainly,  but  then  we  ac- 
cept what  they  say  only  as  the  word  of 
man ;  and  we  have  not  commonly  that  ab- 
solute and  unreserved  confidence  in  them, 
which  nothing  can  shake.  We  know  that 
man  is  open  to  mistake,  and  we  are  always 
glad  to  find  some  confirmation  of  what  he 
says,  from  other  quarters,  in  any  important 
matter ;  or  we  receive  his  information  with 


180         Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric, 

negligence  and  unconcern,  as  something  of 
little  consequence,  as  a  matter  of  opinion; 
or,  if  we  act  upon  it,  it  is  as  a  matter  of 
prudence,  thinking  it  best  and  safest  to  do 
so.  We  take  his  word  for  what  it  is  worth, 
and  we  use  it  either  according  to  our  neces- 
sity, or  its  probability.  We  keep  the  deci- 
sion in  our  own  hands,  and  reserve  to  our- 
selves the  right  of  re-opening  the  question 
whenever  we  please.  This  is  very  different 
from  Divine  faith;  he  who  believes  that 
God  is  true,  and  that  this  is  His  word, 
which  He  has  committed  to  man,  has  no 
doubt  at  all.  He  is  as  certain  that  the  doc- 
trine taught  is  true,  as  that  Grod  is  true; 
and  he  is  certain,  because  Grod  is  true, 
because  Grod  has  spoken,  not  because  he 
sees  its  truth  or  can  prove  its  truth.  That 
is,  faith  has  two  peculiarities ;  —  it  is  most 
certain,  decided,  positive,  immovable  in  its 
assent,  and  it  gives  this  assent  not  because 
it  sees  with  the  eye,  or  sees  with  the  reason, 
but  because  it  receives  the  tidings  from  one 
who  comes  from  God.''  (From  Cardinal 
Newman's  Discourse  on  Faith  and  Private 
Judgment. ) 

Note.     From  the  foregoing  examples  two  main  dis- 
tinctions win  be  easily  inferred  between  a  logical  and  a 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric,         181 

rhetorical  definition.  In  the  logical  definition,  it  is 
the  mental  idea  of  the  thing,  not  the  thing  itself,  that 
we  classify  and  define.  In  the  rhetorical  definition, 
we  go  straight  to  the  thing  itself  and  explain  it  in  its 
most  concrete  form.  In  the  former,  faith  is  called  a 
virtue,  in  the  latter,  it  is  called  an  assenting ;  virtue 
being  the  class  name  of  the  idea,  while  assenting  is  the 
concrete  name  of  the  mental  act  itself.  The  second 
distinction  is,  that  the  logical  definition  gives  no  ex- 
planation of  its  terms,  and  is  condensed,  formal,  and 
purely  intellectual ;  while  the  rhetorical  definition  is 
chiefly  taken  up  with  informal,  discursive  and  popular 
explanation  of  everything  necessary  to  place  the  object 
before  the  hearer  in  as  clear  and  interesting  a  form  as 
possible. 

Logical  definition  is  absolutely  necessary 
for  the  preacher^s  own  guidance,  but  it  is 
generally  too  condensed  and  abstract  for 
popular  use.  It  may,  indeed,  be  given  as 
the  summary  and  conclusion  of  a  rhetorical 
definition;  but  then  all  its  terms  should 
have  been  previously  explained,  so  that  the 
hearer  would  have  no  difficulty  in  under- 
standing it.  It  may  be  given  even  at  the 
beginning  after  the  statement  of  the  propo- 
sition, provided  it  has  become  familiar  to 
the  audience  through  the  words  of  the  cate- 
chism. In  this  case  the  people  are  not  be- 
wildered by  strange  words;  and  they  are 
pleased  to  receive  a  fuller  and  deeper  know- 


182         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

ledge  of  formulae  which  they  once  learned, 
perhaps  without  much  comprehension  of 
their  meaning.  Indeed,  a  preacher  or  cate- 
chist  should  adhere  as  closely  as  possible  to 
the  words  of  the  catechism  in  all  his  defini- 
tions and  divisions.  Making  the  catechism 
his  basis,  he  will  find  ample  opportunity  in 
the  development  and  illustration  of  its 
words  for  the  grandest  display  of  eloquence 
of  which  he  is  capable. 

Notwithstanding  the  necessity  of  logical 
definition  for  the  preacher^ s  own  use,  most 
care  and  labor  must  be  expended  on  rhetor- 
ical definition.  The  primary  aim  of  this  is 
to  bring  the  thing  explained  into  the  widest 
relation  with  the  previous  knowledge  ac- 
quired by  the  audience.  Not  only  scientific 
but  popular  knowledge  advances  from  the 
known  .to  the  unknown.  Hence  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  preacher  to  know  the  limits  of 
his  people's  information  on  doctrinal  and 
moral  subjects,  that  he  may  connect  what 
he  teaches  with  what  has  been  already 
taught  them. 

Rhetorical  definition  should  be  as  con- 
crete as  it  can  be  made.  People  are  not  in- 
terested in  abstractions  and  often  have  a 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         183 

difficulty  in  understanding  them.  Leave, 
then,  those  abstract  qualities  in  the  subject 
to  which  they  belong,  and  describe  the  sub- 
ject as  effected  or  modified  by  them.  You 
will  thus  impress  a  more  vivid  and  lasting 
idea  of  them  than  you  would  do  by  the 
most  elaborate  and  detailed  definition  of 
them  taken  apart  by  themselves.  In  fact, 
the  uneducated  mind  deals  in  abstractions 
more  than  is  generally  thought;  but  the 
abstractions  are  not  formally  separated 
from  their  subject  —  they  are  thought  of 
where  they  are,  to  the  exclusion,  however, 
of  all  thought  of  other  qualities  or  elements. 
Describe  even  to  a  child  a  truthful  man, 
and  it  will  think,  not  on  the  man^s  height, 
or  age,  or  social  standing,  or  personal  ap- 
pearance, but  of  something  in  him  that 
keeps  him  from  lying  and  makes  him  tell 
the  truth.  The  child^s  mind  really  ab- 
stracts, dwells  upon,  admires,  and  possibly 
resolves  to  imitate  the  quality  of  truthful- 
ness in  that  man,  and  it  does  all  this  uncon- 
sciously and  spontaneously,  because  such 
abstraction  is  inseparable  from  the  act  of 
thinking.  But  speak  of  truth  to  that 
same  child  and  define  it  as  simply  and  as 


184         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

fully  as  you  can:  yet  you  will  find  that  you 
stimulate  no  interest  in  it,  and  that  you 
have  much  difficulty  in  holding  its  attention 
on  your  words.  Just  as  we  deal  with  this 
child,  have  we  also  to  deal  with  a  grown  up 
audience.  Wherever  it  is  possible,  we  must 
present  persons  or  objects,  not  abstractions, 
to  them. 

Note;.  It  may  be  objected  that  description  of  a  per- 
son or  a  mental  state  cannot  be  caUed  definition.  Cer- 
tainly not ;  but  it  can  be  used  for  the  purpose  of  defini- 
tion. It  can  portray  the  living  subject  to  which  be- 
longs the  abstraction  —  the  virtue,  vice,  grace,  doctrine 
—  we  are  explaining ;  and  when  the  attention  of  the 
audience  is  fixed  on  that  abstraction,  not  as  an  abstrac- 
tion, but  as  a  feature  of  the  subject  portrayed,  then  the 
proper  work  of  definition  begins. 

Illustkation.  In  Cardinal  Newman^s 
Discourses  there  is  scarcely  any  logical, 
and,  apparently,  little  rhetorical,  definition. 
Yet  he  defines  through  his  descriptions  the 
finest  shades  of  doctrine  with  accuracy  and 
fulness.  His  delineation  of  Magdalen  as  a 
type  of  love  gives  us  all  the  essential  ele- 
ments of  the  virtue,  indirectly  indeed,  but 
much  more  vividly  and  forcibly  than  any 
formal  definition  could  give  them.  I  give 
only  a  part  of  the  passage  here.  It  is  to  be 
found  in  the  Discourse  on  Purity  and  Love. 


Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric,         185 

^  There  is  an  illustrious  third  in  Script- 
ure, whom  we  must  associate  with  these 
two  great  Apostles''  (St.  Peter  and  St. 
Paul),  ^Vhen  we  speak  of  the  saints  of 
penance  and  love.  Who  is  it  but  the  loving 
Magdalen?  Who  is  it  so  fully  instances 
what  I  am  showing,  as  ^the  woman  who 
was  a  sinner',  who  watered  the  Lord's  feet 
with  her  tears,  and  dried  them  with  her 
hair,  and  anointed  them  with  precious  oint- 
ment! What  a  time  for  such  an  act !  She, 
who  had  come  into  the  room,  as  if  for  a 
festive    purpose,    to    go   about  an   act  of 

penance! But,  lo,  a  wondrous  sight! 

was  it  a  sudden  inspiration,  or  a  mature  re- 
solve? was  it  an  act  of  the  moment,  or  the 
result  of  a  long  conflict?  — but  behold,  that 
poor,  many -colored  child  of  guilt  ap- 
proaches to  crown  with  her  sweet  ointment 
the  head  of  Him  to  whom  the  feast  was 
given;  and  see,  she  has  stayed  her  hand. 
She  has  looked,  and  she  discerns  the  Im- 
maculate, the  Virgin's  Son,  ^the  brightness 
of  the  Eternal  Light,  and  the  spotless  mir- 
ror of  Grod's  majesty'.  She  looks,  and  she 
recognizes  the  Ancient  of  Days,  the  Lord  of 
life  and  death,  her  Judge;    and  again  she 


186         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

looks,  and  she  sees  in  His  face  and  in  His 
mien  a  beauty,  and  a  sweetness,  awful, 
serene,  majestic,  more  than  that  of  the  sons 
of  men,  which  paled  all  the  splendor  of  that 
festive  room.  Again  she  looks,  timidly  yet 
eagerly,  and  she  discerns  in  His  eye,  and  in 
His  smile,  the  loving-kindness,  the  tender- 
ness, the  compassion,  the  mercy  of  the 
Saviour  of  men.  She  looks  at  herself,  and 
oh !  how  vile,  how  hideous  is  she,  who  but 
now  was  so  vain  of  her  attractions !  —  how 
withered  is  that  comeliness,  of  which  the 
praises  ran  through  the  mouths  of  her  ad- 
mirers—  how  loathsome  has  become  the 
breath,  which  hitherto  she  thought  so 
fragrant,  savoring  only  of  those  seven  bad 
spirits  which  dwell  within  her !  And  there 
she  would  have  stayed,  there  she  would 
have  sunk  on  the  earth,  wrapped  in  her 
confusion  and  in  her  despair,  had  she  not 
cast  one  glance  again  on  that  all-loving,  all- 
forgiving  Countenance.  He  is  looking  at 
her:  it  is  the  Shepherd  looking  at  the  lost 
sheep,  and  the  lost  sheep  surrenders  herself 
to  Him.  He  speaks  not,  but  He  eyes  her ; 
and  she  draws  nearer  to  Him.  Eejoice,  ye 
Angels,  she  draws  near,  seeing  nothing  but 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric,         187 

Him,  and  caring  neither  for  the  scorn  of 
the  proud,  nor  the  jests  of  the  profligate. 
She  draws  near,  not  knowing  whether  she 
shall  be  saved  or  not,  not  knowing  whether 
she  shall  be  received,  or  what  will  become 
of  her;  this  only  knowing  that  He  is  the 
Fount  of  holiness  and  truth,  as  of  mercy, 
and  salvation;  to  whom  should  she  go,  but 
to  Him  who  hath  the  words  of  eternal  life? 

Wonderful  meeting  between  what 

was  most  base  and  what  is  most  pure! 
Those  wanton  hands,  those  polluted  lips, 
have  touched,  have  kissed  the  feet  of  the 
Eternal,  and  He  shrank  not  from  the 
homage.  And  as  she  hung  over  them,  and 
as  she  moistened  them  from  her  full  eyes, 
how  did  her  love  for  One  so  great,  yet  so 
gentle,  wax  vehement  within  her,  lighting 
up  a  flame  which  never  was  to  die  from  that 
moment,  even  for  ever!  and  what  excess 
did  it  reach,  when  He  recorded  before  all 
men  her  forgiveness,  and  the  cause  of  it! 
^Many  sins  are  forgiven  her,  for  she  loved 
much;  but  to  whom  less  is  forgiven,  the 
same  loveth  less.  And  He  said  unto  her. 
Thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee ;  thy  faith  has 
made  thee  safe,  go  in  peace.' 


188         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

'^Henceforth,  my  brethren,  love  was  to 
her,  as  to  St.  Augustine  and  to  St.  Ignatius 
Loyola  afterwards  (great  penitents  in  their 
own  time),  as  a  wound  in  the  soul,  so  full 
of  desire  as  to  become  anguish.  She  could 
not  live  out  of  the  presence  of  Him  in 
whom  her  joy  lay:  her  spirit  languished 
after  Him,  when  she  saw  him  not;  and 
waited  on  Him  silently,  reverently,  wist- 
fully, when  she  was  in  His  blissful  presence. 
We  read  of  her  (if  it  was  she),  on  one  oc- 
casion, sitting  at  His  feet  to  hear  His  words 
and  of  His  testifying  that  she  had  chosen 
that  best  part  which  should  not  be  taken 
away  from  her '^ 

On  the  surface  there  is  no  definition  here, 
nothing  more,  indeed,  than  a  masterly  de- 
scription of  Magdalen^s  conversion.  But  in 
the  under-current  of  thought,  always  clearly 
discernible  in  this  eminent  preacher's  style, 
you  can  perceive  a  conscious  purpose  to  de- 
fine or  point  out  the  principal  stages  from 
the  depths  of  sin  to  the  heights  of  repentant 
love.  In  carrying  out  this  purpose,  he  fol- 
lows closely  the  teaching  of  St.  Thomas  as 
given  in  the  Summa  (III.  quaest.  85, 
art.  5). 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.         189 

The  first  office  of  a  rhetorical  definition  is 
to  explain  satisfactorily  every  term  of  the 
proposition  or  of  the  part  of  it  (first,  second, 
third  point)  with  which  we  are  dealing.  In 
moral  sermons  it  may  frequently  seem  to  us 
that  definition  is  not  required  —  that  it  is 
not  only  tedious,  but  nugatory  and  useless. 
For  instance:  here  is  the  proposition  of  a 
sermon  on  the  Unprofitable  Servant:  ^'Our 
virtue  must  be  progressive  in  ourselves ;  it 
must  be  fruitful  in  others.^'  (Cardinal 
Wiseman,  Sermons  on  Moral  Subjects.) 
What  room,  it  may  be  asked,  is  here  for 
definition?  The  audience  know  what  virtue 
is,  and  in  what  progressiveness  and  fruit- 
fulness  consist;  why  then  explain  these 
simple  terms  to  them?  I  acknowledge  that 
simple  every-day  words  need  no  definition 
or  explanation ;  I  acknowledge  also  that  we 
should  carefully  avoid  the  appearance  of 
affronting  our  hearers  by  addressing  them 
as  we  should  a  kindergarten  class:  but  I 
say,  that  there  are  not  many  words  used  in 
explaining  matters  of  faith  or  conduct  that 
do  not  need  to  be  defined.  Take,  for  ex- 
ample, the  word  virtue  in  the  foregoing  pro- 
position: how  few  have  a  definite  idea  of 


190         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric, 

iti  yet  how  much  instruction  is  contained 
even  in  the  few  lines  that  any  compendium 
of  theology  gives  about  it?  ^'Virtue  is  the 
habit  of  acting  in  accordance  with  right 
order.  It  is  natural  or  supernatural,  in- 
fused or  acquired,  theological  or  moral. 
There  are  four  moral  virtues  called  cardinal, 
under  which  all  other  moral  virtues  may  be 
classed:  prudence,  justice,  fortitude  and 
temperance/'  Such  definitions  supply 
numerous  vistas  of  thought  branching  off 
from  our  theme — vistas  full  of  interest  and 
suggestion  to  the  audience. 

The  second  office  of  rhetorical  definition 
is  to  give  the  parts  and  divisions  of  the  ob- 
ject defined.  By  parts  I  mean  here  the 
essential  elements  of  the  object;  and  by 
divisions,  the  enumeration  of  all  those  par- 
ticular objects  which  are  included  in  the 
general  object  or  to  which  the  name  of  the 
general  object  may  be  applied.  For  ex- 
ample, in  the  foregoing  definition  of  virtue, 
the  object  defined  —  virtue  —  has  two  parts, 
or  essential  elements,  namely,  habit  and 
conformity  to  right  order.  Its  divisions  are 
all  the  various  habits  to  which  the  name 
virtue  may  be  applied.     Or  again:  the  es- 


Manual  oj  Sacred  Rhetoric,         191 

sential  elements  of  man  are  soul  and  body ; 
the  divisions  of  man  are  all  individuals 
(arranged  in  classes)  to  whom  the  name  of 
man  can  be  extended. 

Division,  in  the  sense  just  explained,  is 
most  useful  in  giving  a  clear,  distinct,  and 
complete  idea  of  the  object  defined.  You 
are  speaking  of  mortal  sin,  for  instance,  and 
you  wish  to  define  the  word  mortal.  You 
say  that  it  is  taken  from  a  Latin  word  signi- 
fying death.  Mortal  sin  then,  is  sin  causing 
death.  Now  there  are  two  kinds  of  death, 
the  death  of  the  soul  and  the  death  of  the 
body ;  and  the  death  caused  by  mortal  sin 
is  the  former  kind  of  death  —  the  death  of 
the  soul.  This  form  of  definition  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  for  the  full  explanation  of 
the  different  species  of  virtues  and  vices, 
and  for  the  proper  understanding  of  the 
numeric  distinction  of  sins. 

Ehetorical  definition  does  not  confine  it- 
self to  giving  the  essence  of  the  object  de- 
fined ;  it  frequently  gives  also  external  mani- 
festations of  it,  properties  that  flow  from 
the  essence  although  not  a  part  of  it,  and 
even  qualities,  sometimes  but  not  always 
found  in  it. 


192         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

Illustbations.  1.  Father  Burke,  after 
showing  that  Christ  always  speaks  of  His 
Church  as  a  kingdom  which  He  was  to 
estabhsh  upon  this  earth,  goes  on  to  define 
what  is  contained  in  this  idea  of  a  kingdom. 
He  says:  ^^Now,  if  we  once  let  into  our 
minds  the  idea  that  the  Church  of  Christ  is 
a  kingdom,  we  must  at  once  admit  into  the 
idea  of  the  Church  an  organization  which  is 
necessary  for  every  kingdom  upon  this 
earth.  And  what  is  the  first  element?  I 
answer  that  the  first  element  of  a  nation  is 
to  have  a  head  or  ruler — call  him  what  you 
will  —  elect  him  as  you  will.  Is  it  a  republic? 
it  must  have  a  president.  Is  it  a  monarchy? 
it  must  have  its  king.  Is  it  an  empire?  it 
must  have  its  emperor ;  and  so  on.  But  the 
moment  you  imagine  a  State  or  kingdom  of 
any  kind  without  a  head,  that  moment  you 
destroy  out  of  your  mind  the  very  idea  of  a 
State  united  for  certain  purposes  and 
governed  by  certain  known  and  acknowl- 
edged ideas  called  laws.  That  head  of  the 
nation  must  be  the  supreme  tribunal  of  the 
nation.  From  him,  in  his  executive  ofiice, 
all  subordinate  officers  hold  their  power; 
and  even    though  he  be  elected   by   the 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.         193 

people,  and  chosen  from  among  the  people, 
the  moment  he  is  set  at  the  head  of  the 
State  or  nation,  that  moment  he  is  the  re- 
presentative or  embodiment  of  the  fountain 
of  authority.  Every  one  wielding  power 
within  that  nation  must  bow  to  him.  Every 
one  exercising  jurisdiction  within  that  nation 
must  derive  it  from  him.  He,  I  say  again, 
may  derive  it  even  from  the  choice  of  the 
people;  but  when  he  is  thus  elevated,  he 
forms  one  unit,  to  which  everything-  in  the 
State  is  bound  to  look  up.  This  is  the  very 
first  idea  and  notion  which  the  word  State 
or  kingdom  invols^es.'' 

2.  The  same  preacher  defines  in  the  fol- 
lowing words  the  kind  of  progress  which 
the  Church  condemns:  ^ 'There  is  another 
kind  of  progress ;  and  the  Church  is  opposed 
to  it.  Grod  is  opposed  to  it.  What  is  it? 
It  is  progress  of  a  pseudo-intellectual  kind. 
It  is  progress  that  involves  that  diabolical 
'Spiritualism'  —  dealing  with  spirits, 
whether  good  or  bad  —  and  the  super- 
stition that  arises  from  it ;  it  is  the  progress 
that  results  in  what  is  called  the  doctrine 
of  'free  love'  —  the  progress  that  unsexes 
the  woman ;  that  sends  her  into  dissecting 


194         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric, 

rooms,  or  such  unwomanly  places,  and 
there  debauches  her  mind,  while  she  is 
said  to  be  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge; 
it  is  the  progress  that  asserts  that  children 
are  to  be  brought  up  from  their  earliest 
infancy  in  such  independence,  that  they 
are  allowed  to  give  the  lie  to  their  father 
or  their  mother;  it  is  the  progress  that 
would  assert  that  politics  is  a  game  that 
men  are  to  enter  into  for  their  own  private 
aggrandizement  and  wealth;  it  is  the  pro- 
gress that  would  assert  that,  in  commercial 
intercourse,  a  man  may  do  a  smart  thing ; 
although  there  may  be  a  little  tinge  of 
roguery  in  it ;  it  is  the  progress  that  would 
assert  that  every  man  is  free  to  think  as 
he  likes  on  every  subject  —  all  this  the 
Church  is  opposed  to.'' 

3.  Father  Pottgeisser  gives  the  following 
symptoms  of  lukewarmness,  which  he  calls 
a  disease  of  the  soul.  It  will  be  observed 
that  none  of  them,  taken  apart  from  the 
others,  is  an  essential  characteristic,  but 
merely  an  accidental  quality;  yet  all  com- 
bined present  a  true  picture  of  a  tepid  man. 
It  should  be  noted  also  that  rhetorical  de- 
finition takes  here  the  form  of  description, 
being  the  portrayal  of  a  mental  state. 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.         195 

^The  lukewarm  Christian  is  not  sensible 
of  his  malady  J  because  his  conscience  is  be- 
numbed. He  has  a  callous  conscience.  His 
constant  neglect  of  the  service  of  Grod,  the 
numberless  willful  venial  sins,  which  he 
continued  to  commit  daily,  have  blunted 
the  edge  of  his  conscience  and  rendered  it 
all  but  insensible.  His  conscience  does  not 
reproach  him,  as  long  as  he  perceives  no 
grievous  guilt.  He  has  not  committed 
murder,  or  grave  theft,  or  dishonesty; 
neither  has  he  committed  adultery,  nor  is 
he  given  to  drunkenness ;  he  entertains  no 
serious  enmities;  in  short,  there  is  nothing 
that  weighs  heavily  on  his  conscience.  But 
his  pride  and  envy,  his  petty  dishonesties, 
his  rather  free  manner  in  conversation  and 
society,  his  intemperance,  which  never 
reaches  the  point  of  intoxication  —  all  these, 
and  a  thousand  other  venial  sins  have  no 
terror  for  his  conscience.  He  has  been  used 
to  bear  all  this  without  misgiving.  His 
conscience  is  mute,  because  he  carefully 
avoids  everything  that  awakens  it  to  the 
danger  of  his  state.  If  he  happens  to  be 
present  at  a  sermon,  he  either  abandons 
himself  to   all  manner  of  distractions,  or 


196         Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric, 

listens  only  in  the  capacity  of  a  critic,  whom 
the  matter  itself  does  not  concern.  He 
never  takes  a  pious  book  into  his  hands  the 
whole  year  round.  He  never  associates 
with  pious  and  fervent  Christians;  such 
society  is  too  dull  for  him.  Even  the  Sacra- 
ment of  Penance  has  no  influence  over  him ; 
for  whatever  we  may  think  of  the  worthiness 
of  his  confessions,  it  is  certain  that  his  dis- 
position is  not  such  as  to  secure  large  and 
lasting  fruit.'' 

E/hetorical  definition  aims  at  giving  a 
thorough,  comprehensive  knowledge  of  the 
thing  defined.  Hence  it  explains  the  thing 
not  only  in  itself  but  also  in  its  cause  or 
reason  and  in  its  effects.  Cause  or  reason, 
however,  means  here  only  such  account  of 
the  truth  defined  as  makes  it  appear  fitting, 
probable,  plausible  to  the  hearer.  It  usually 
consists  in  one  or  two  texts  of  Scripture,  or 
in  its  apt  adjustment  with  something  al- 
ready known  or  admitted.  The  effects  also 
to  be  given  are  only  those  that  are  immed- 
iate and  obvious  and  have  an  important 
bearing  on  the  definite  object  of  the 
sermon. 

Examples.     1.    St.  Bernard,  speaking  of 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.         197 

Heaven,  says  that  there  Grod  is  to  His  elect 
the  fulness  of  light  to  the  intellect,  the  ful- 
ness of  peace  to  the  will,  and  the  fulness  of 
duration  to  the  memory.  The  fulness  of 
light  is  thus  defined :  ' '  Ascend  into  Heaven , 
O  human  intelligence:  behold  there  the 
light,  behold  there  the  truth  unclouded,  be- 
hold there  all  thy  longings  satisfied.  When 
thou  hast  contemplated  Grod  in  His  nature 
and  attributes,  thou  wilt  be  permitted  to  see 
Him  in  His  three  adorable  Persons.  The 
profound  mysteries  of  the  Incarnation,  of 
predestination,  of  grace  will  Tdc  unveiled  to 
thee;  thou  wilt  be  shown  the  justice  of 
Grod's  dealings  with  the  just  as  well  as  with 
sinners.  What,  exclaims  St.  Gregory,  will 
be  hidden  from  those  who  behold  Him  that 
seeth  all  things?  Quid  est  quod  non  vident 
qui  videntem  omnia  vident  f  We  shall  pene- 
trate, says  St.  Paul,  to  the  inmost  sanctuary 
within  the  veil — usque  ad  interiora  velaminis ; 
where  the  sun  has  no  setting  and  the  moon 
no  decrease ;  that  is,  the  truth  shines  there 
with  eternal  splendor,  visible  and  compre- 
hensible to  all — the  truth  of  things  divine, 
the  truth  of  things  human,  the  truth  of  the 
uncomprehended  things  of  this  world  and 


198         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

of  eternity,  the  truth  naked,  absolute, 
entire,  such  as  our  intelligence  demands. 
^In  Thy  light  we  shall  see  the  light'.'' 

2.  St.  John  Chrysostom,  treating  of  the 
fear  of  Grod,  says:  ^^The  fear  of  Grod  regu- 
lates and  controls  the  thoughts,  shrinks 
from  sin,  is  the  safeguard  of  innocence,  and 
the  source  of  all  good." 

Rhetorical  definition  has  not  completed 
its  work  when  it  has  given  the  hearer  a 
clear,  distinct,  complete,  and  comprehensive 
knowledge  of  the  truth  developed.  It  has 
still  to  stamp  that  knowledge  on  the  mind 
and  heart.  A  single  blow  of  a  hammer  may 
fix  the  point  of  a  nail  in  wood ;  but  it  takes 
repeated  blows  to  drive  the  nail  home.  This 
driving  home  process,  as  apphed  to  the  en- 
forcement of  truth  defined,  is  called  in  re- 
cent works  on  rhetoric  amplification.  ^^In 
the  construction  of  the  plan,"  writes  Pro- 
fessor Grenung,  ^^the  main  ideas  of  the  dis- 
course have  been  determined,  in  their 
mutual  relations,  from  beginning  to  end. 
As  yet,  however,  they  are  expressed  only  in 
germ.  They  need  to  be  taken  up  anew  and 
endowed  with  life ;  to  be  clothed  in  a  fitting 
dress  of  explanatory,  illustrative,  and  en- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         199 

forcing  thought.  This  is  the  office  of  rheto- 
rical amphfication/'  Among  the  old  rheto- 
ricians, the  word  was  used  in  a  much  nar- 
rower sense.  ^^ Amplification^ ^  says  Cicero, 
^^est  gravior  quaedam  affirmation  qae  motu 
animorum  conciliat  in  dicendo  fidem.^^  Rev. 
T.  Potter,  in  his  valuable  work  on  Sacred 
Eloquence,  confines  amplification  to  the 
development  of  arguments.  ^^Although,^^ 
he  writes,  ^^the  effect  of  our  reasoning  de- 
pends very  much  upon  the  due  selection  and 
arrangement  of  our  arguments,  it  depends 
still  more  upon  their  amplification,  or,  in 
other  words,  upon  the  force,  vigor,  beauty, 
and  practical  application  with  which  they 
are  put.  ^'  Dr.  Phelps,  on  the  other  hand, 
does  not  use  the  word  at  all  in  his  Theory 
of  Preaching;  and  I  think  he  is  right.  Its 
present  acceptation  in  rhetoric  makes  it 
cover  every  process  by  which  thought  is  de- 
veloped; it  includes,  therefore,  the  entire 
body  of  a  discourse,  and  it  would  be  illogical 
to  narrow  it  to  an  aid  or  adjunct  of  de- 
finition. Therefore,  whenever  I  shall  have 
occasion  to  use  the  word  I  will  use  it 
only  in  its  generic  sense  of  expansion  — 
enlargement. 


200         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric. 

Various  means  are  adopted  in  preaching 
to  give  volume,  body,  force  to  a  thought 
and  to  give  the  hearer  time  to  take  it  in  and 
digest  and  assimilate  it.  Rhetorical  de- 
finition draws  freely  on  the  resources  of 
Illustration  for  this  purpose;  but  as  we 
shall  treat  of  these  in  the  next  chapter,  we 
need  not  dwell  on  them  here.  There  is  one 
means,  however,  namely,  Eepetition,  which 
is  closely  allied  to  definition,  and  is  of  suf- 
ficient importance  to  demand  separate  and 
detailed  treatment. 

Eepetition,  indeed,  in  one  or  other  of  its 
forms  is  the  ordinary  method  by  which  de- 
finition is  enlarged.  But  it  does  not  consist 
in  mere  reiteration;  it  adds  something  to 
the  elucidation  already  given  in  definiteness, 
or  volume,  or  impressiveness.  It  arrests 
the  movement,  or  progressive  growth,  of 
thought  in  the  sermon ;  and  should,  there- 
fore, be  sparingly  employed.  Though  ab- 
solutely necessary  to  make  definition  effect- 
ive, it  is  from  its  very  nature  apt  to  become 
tiresome  if  not  skilfully  managed.  The 
skill  consists  chiefly  in  adding  something 
new  and  striking  to  the  central  thought, 
and,  as  far  as  possible,  putting  what  is 
added  in  the  climactic  order. 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         201 

When  preparing  this  part  of  a  sermon, 
we  must  not  expect  to  derive  any  direct 
help  from  rhetorical  rules  or  suggestions. 
The  truth  to  be  expanded  and  enforced  by 
repetition  must  be  a  live,  fecund,  spiritual 
thought ;  and  we  must  have  a  glowing,  pas- 
sionate desire  and  resolve  to  plant  it  deep  in 
the  souls  of  our  hearers.  Such  desire  will 
often  urge  to  anomalous  forms  of  repetition ; 
but  often  also  it  will  be  guided  by  rules  that 
conviction  and  experience  together  with 
frequent  use  have  made  a  second  nature  to 
us.  Hence,  it  is  advisable  for  young 
preachers  to  make  themselves  acquainted 
with  those  rules  (as  far  as  they  can  be  for- 
mulated), and  to  exercise  themselves  fre- 
quently in  the  application  of  them.  A 
better  practice  still  would  be  to  find  out 
rules  for  repetition  for  one^s  self  by  reading 
and  analyzing  the  sermons  of  eminent 
preachers,  and  also  by  studying  minutely 
those  numerous  passages  of  Sacred  Script- 
ure in  which  this  mode  of  expansion  and 
enforcement  is  employed  with  inimitable 
skill. 

Note.  No  book  of  sermons  is  required  for  this  prac- 
tice. The  Ivcssons  of  the  Breviary  supply  abundant 
examples  of  sublime  Christian  eloquence.     Read  espe- 


202         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

cially  theextracts  from  St.  John  Chrysostom,  St.  Leo 
the  Great  and  St.  Bernard. 

The  first  and  most  usual  mode  of  repeti- 
tion is  the  accumulation  of  predicates,  each 
throwing  light  on  the  subject  defined.  We 
have  an  example  of  this  mode  in  the  thir- 
teenth chapter  of  the  first  Epistle  to  the 
Corinthians,  too  well  known,  perhaps,  to  be 
quoted  here ;  yet  I  give  the  words  to  make 
reference  to  them  convenient. 

Charity  is  patient,  is  kind:  Charity  envieth  not, 
dealeth  not  perversely :  is  not  pujEfed  up,  is  not  am- 
bitious, seeketh  not  her  own,  is  not  provoked  to  anger, 
thinketh  no  evil,  rejoiceth  not  in  iniquity,  but  rejoiceth 
with  the  truth :  beareth  all  things,  believeth  all  things, 
hopeth  all  things,  eudureth  all  things. 

Charity  never  falleth  away :  whether  prophecies 
shall  be  made  void,  or  tongues  shall  cease,  or  know- 
ledge shall  be  destroyed. 

Here  we  have  seven  qualities  or  character- 
istics predicated  of  charity,  namely,  pati- 
ence, kindness,  sympathy,  strength,  faith, 
hope,  endurance. 

Another  example  of  this  form  of  repeti- 
tion is  the  following  taken  from  Father 
Burke : 

"As  the  apostle  pithily  and  forcibly  puts  it,  ^Hahe- 
mus  altare'  —  we  have  an  altar  —  not  merely  a  place  of 
prayer,  not  merely  a  table  whereon  to  commemorate  in 
a  shadowy  and  most  inefficient  manner  the  recollection 
of  the  greatest  act  that  ever  took  place  on  this  earth, 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.  203 

but  a  true  and  real  altar  of  sacrifice,  solemnly  con- 
secrated with  the  outpouring  of  oil  and  the  voice  of 
prayer  —  an  altar  on  which  the  blood  of  a  victim  flows 
in  real  sacrifice,  an  altar  before  which  an  accredited 
and  anointed  priest,  sacrificing,  takes  his  stand  —  an 
altar  whereon  is  consummated  the  highest  and  the 
great  central  mystery  of  our  religion  —  an  altar,  there- 
fore, of  all  places  on  this  earth  the  most  holy  and  the 
most  solemn  —  an  altar  of  the  holy  Catholic  Church." 

A  second  form  of  repetition  is  the  expan- 
sion of  the  subject.  If  this  be  a  generical 
term,  the  specific  terms  it  contains  or  many 
of  them  are  enumerated.  St.  Paul  gives  us 
an  example  of  this  form  also  in  the  eight 
chapter  of  his  Epistle  to  the  Eomans: 

"Who  then  shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of  Christ? 
shall  tribulation?  or  distress?  or  famine?  or  nakedness? 

or  danger?  or  persecution?  or  the  sword? I  am 

sure  that  neither  death,  nor  life,  nor  angels,  nor  prin- 
cipalities, nor  powers,  nor  things  present,  nor  things  to 
come,  nor  might,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other 
creature  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of 
God,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  I^ord." 

A  third  form  is  to  repeat  the  subject  or 
the  predicate  considered  in  various  lights 
(essence,  characteristics,  sources,  causes, 
effects,  etc.)  Thus,  in  the  statement: 
Grrace  is  necessary  for  salvation,  the  subject 
grace  may  be  spoken  of  as  divine  mercy, 
Grod^s  helping  hand,  the  Passion  and  death 
of  Jesus  Christ,  or  the  Precious  Blood,  the 


204         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

wedding  garment,  etc.  The  predicate,  too, 
may  be  expanded  into  these  phrases:  the 
only  means  of  salvation ;  our  only  hope  of 
Heaven,  of  ever  seeing  our  Father's  face,  of 
enjoying  the  society  of  the  elect,  of  escap- 
ing eternal  punishment,  of  attaining  the 
end  of  our  being. 

A  fourth  form  enumerates  various  circum- 
stances of  the  subject  or  predicate,  bringing 
it  into  greater  distinctness.  The  following 
passage  from  Cardinal  Newman  illustrates 
this  form : 

"Next,  this  foHows  from  what  I  have  said:  —  that 
since  He  is  from  everlasting,  and  has  created  all  things 
from  a  certain  beginning,  He  has  lived  in  an  eternity 
before  He  began  to  create  anything.  What  a  wonder- 
ful thought  is  this !  there  was  a  state  of  things  in 
which  God  was  by  Himself,  and  nothing  else  but  He. 
There  was  no  earth,  no  sky,  no  sun,  no  stars,  no  space, 
no  time,  no  beings  of  any  kind :  no  men,  no  Angels, 
no  Seraphim.  His  throne  was  without  ministers ;  He 
was  not  waited  on  by  any;  all  was  silence,  all  was  re- 
pose, there  was  nothing  but  God  ;  and  this  state  con- 
tinued not  for  a  while  only,  but  for  a  measureless  dura- 
tion ;  it  was  a  state  which  had  ever  been ;  it  was  the 
rule  of  things,  and  creation  had  been  an  innovation 
upon  it.  Creation  is,  comparatively  speaking,  but  of 
yesterday  ;  it  has  lasted  a  poor  six  thousand  years,  say 
sixty  thousand,  if  you  will,  or  six  million,  or  six  mil^ 
lion  million;  what  is  this  to  eternity?  nothing  at  all; 
not  so  much  as  a  drop  compared  to  the  whole  ocean,  or 
a  grain  of  sand  compared  to  the  whole  earth.     I  say. 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         205 

through  a  whole  eternity  God  was  by  Himself,  with  no 
other  being  but  Himself;  with  nothing  external  to 
Himself,  not  working,  but  at  rest,  not  speaking,  not 
receiving  homage  from  any,  not  glorified  in  creatures, 
but  blessed  in  Himself  and  by  Himself,  and  wanting 
nothing." 

The  fifth  form  of  repetition  consists  in 
denying  to  the  subject  or  predicate  some 
characteristics  or  qualities  that  might  other- 
wise be  attributed  to  it.  We  have  an  ex- 
ample of  this  in  the  passage  from  St.  Paul 
on  Charity,  already  quoted.  There  he  de- 
clares the  idea  of  charity  to  be  irrecon- 
cilable with  envy,  boasting,  vanity,  ambi- 
tion, self-seeking,  etc.  Again:  in  a  sermon 
on  Meekness,  this  form  might  be  advan- 
tageously used  as  follows:  ^ ^Blessed  are  the 
meek ;  blessed  are  they  who  do  not  resent 
injuries,  who  do  not  harbor  malice,  who 
return  not  evil  for  evil  —  blow  for  blow, 
who  rejoice  not  in  the  misfortune  of  their 
enemy,  who  wish  him  no  harm  but  every 
blessing,  who  when  slighted  or  insulted 
give  not  way  to  the  promptings  of  nature, 
but,  trampling  them  under  foot,  rise  to  the 
sublimity  of  forgiveness.  Blessed  are  the 
meek.^' 

In  every  form  of  repetition  care  must  be 
taken  to  avoid  the  introduction  of  any  new 


206         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric, 

or  independent  statement  that  would  draw 
off  the  mind  from  the  truth  presented,  or 
dissipate  the  energy  of  attention.  Much 
practical  judgment  is  also  required  to  deter- 
mine the  extent  to  which  repetition  is  to  be 
used  in  the  development  of  a  truth.  To 
give  various  presentments  of  every  truth 
enunciated  would  as  much  outrage  good 
taste,  as  to  lay  emphasis  on  every  word  in  a 
sentence.  Such  excess  would  frustrate  the 
end  of  repetition  and  emphasis  alike. 

The  habit  of  clear  and  accurate  thinking 
is  the  foundation  of  clear  and  accurate  de- 
finition, and  is  therefore  an  essential  ele- 
ment in  the  equipment  of  every  preacher. 
Six  years'  training  in  philosophy  and  the- 
ology might  be  reasonably  thought  suffici- 
ent to  mould  the  seminarian's  mind  in  such 
a  habit;  yet  we  know  from  experience  that 
it  does  not  always  do  so.  This  is  not  the 
place  to  inquire  into  the  cause  of  the  failure ; 
but  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  make  here  a  few 
suggestions  as  to  the  best  means  of  acquir- 
ing or  preserving  the  habit  I  speak  of. 
First,  when  collecting  matter  for  your  ser- 
mon, reject  any  thoughts,  as  unavailable, 
that  you  do  not  clearly  and  thoroughly  un- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         207 

derstand.  Better  a  hundred  times  for  the 
people  is  meagre  and  clear,  than  full  and 
confused,  knowledge.  Secondly,  draw  a 
sharp  line  between  your  knowledge  and 
your  ignorance;  and  place  on  the  side  of 
ignorance  whatever  you  are  not  sure  of  or 
cannot  account  for  or  cannot  express  ade- 
quately in  clear  and  accurate  language. 
Thirdly,  cultivate  mental  activity  by  feeling 
dissatisfied  with  half  truths  and  by  sparing 
no  reasonable  effort  to  convert  them  into 
knowledge.  Fourthly,  read  for  the  most 
part  only  books  that  will  make  you  think. 
The  habit  of  desultory  reading,  especially 
of  newspapers  and  novels,  leads  inevitably 
to  mental  paralysis.  Fifthly,  aim  at  clear- 
ness and  accuracy  in  ordinary  conversation. 
Make  no  miserable  pretense  of  knowing 
more  than  you  do  know.  In  the  discussion 
of  social,  political,  or  theological  questions, 
strive  not  for  victory  per  fas  aut  nefas: 
strive  rather  for  truth  and  light. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
Illustration. 

Illustration  is  the  second  stage  in  the  pro- 
cess of  exposition.  In  aim  it  agrees  with 
definition,  as  both  seek  to  make  some  truth 
as  distinct  and  luminous  as  possible;  but 
they  differ  in  the  means  they  adopt,  as  well 
as  in  the  kind  of  knowledge  they  impart. 
Definition  uses  analysis  of  the  truth  itself; 
illustration  uses  comparison  of  it  with  re- 
lated truths.  The  former  gives  absolute 
knowledge  of  the  truth ;  the  latter  adds  re- 
lative knowledge,  that  is,  knowledge  derived 
from  the  relations  between  the  truth  illus- 
trated and  other  truths  previously  acquired. 
The  only  relations  that  I  shall  dwell  on  here 
are  those  of  similarity  and  contrast. 

NoT^.  Deviation  from  the  ordinary  form  of  unim- 
passioned  language  to  illustrate  or  enforce  a  truth  is 
called  a  figure  of  speech.  The  old  rhetoricians  dis- 
tinguished about  forty  figures  of  speech  which  they  di- 
vided almost  equally  into  word-figures  and  thought- 
figures.  Modern  writers  on  the  art  of  composition  have 
wisely  reduced  that  number  to  some  twelve  or  fourteen. 
These  they  divide  into  two  classes  —  those  that  promote 

(208) 


Manual  oj  Sacred  Bhetoric.         209 

clearness  and  those  whose  object  is  emphasis.  In  the 
former  they  place  metonomy,  simile,  metaphor,  per- 
sonification, and  allegory ;  in  the  latter,  exclamation, 
interrogation,  apostrophe,  hyperbole,  irony,  antithesis, 
epigram,  and  climax.  Of  course,  these  figures  are  as 
available  and  as  necessary  for  preaching  as  they  are  for 
other  forms  of  discourse.  They  should,  therefore,  be 
studied  in  books  of  rhetoric  and  the  rules  for  their 
proper  use  should  be  applied  in  daily  exercises  until 
they  become,  as  it  were,  a  second  nature  to  the  young 
preacher.  He  must  be  careful,  however,  to  exercise 
discretion  and  taste  in  employing  them  in  his  sermons. 
Hyperbole  and  irony  are  scarcely  permissible  in  the 
pulpit ;  and  most  figures  of  emphasis  should  be  intro- 
duced only  in  the  emotional  part  of  a  sermon. 

Illustration  may  be  divided  into  figurative 
and  non-figurative.  As  the  former  belongs 
to  elementary  rhetoric,  it  is  not  necessary 
to  discuss  it  here;  the  latter,  then,  will 
form  the  subject-matter  of  this  chapter. 

Non-figurative  Illustration  consists  of  com- 
parison, contrast,  analogy,  example,  ex- 
perience, and  quotation.  These  forms  serve 
a  double  purpose  they  explain  and  they 
prove.  In  popular  oratory,  indeed,  they 
are  employed  almost  exclusively  for  argu- 
ment, to  bring  conviction  home  to  an  audi- 
ence. As  we  cannot  recognize  an  attitude 
of  unbelief  or  doubt  toward  our  teaching, 
we  must  use  them  ostensibly  for  exposition 
alone.     But  this  is  not  to  prevent  us  from 


210         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

keeping  in  view  and  promoting  their  second- 
ary and  indirect  effect  —  the  confirmation, 
roundness,  and  satisfactoriness  they  give  to 
Catholic  belief. 

A  few  words  must  be  said  here  about  as- 
sociation of  ideas,  because  on  this  chiefly 
depends  a  preacher's  success  in  illustration. 
Ideas  and  words  have  a  very  different  sug- 
gestive power  for  different  minds.  To  some 
all  mental  impressions  are  separate  and  al- 
most independent  entities  in  the  soul. 
G-eneral  ideas  or  truths  do  not  suggest  any 
of  the  particular  ideas  or  truths  contained 
in  them;  objects  are  not  associated  with  ob- 
jects, facts  are  not  associated  with  facts; 
and,  much  less,  neither  facts,  objects, 
words,  nor  ideas  in  one  order  are  associated 
with  those  corresponding  to  them  in  another 
order.  This  mental  sluggishness,  whether 
natural  or  contracted,  must  be  shaken  off 
by  all  who  aspire  to  become  efficient 
preachers.  Unless  they  do  this,  their 
sermons  will  be  prosaic  and  uninteresting. 
They  should  study  literature  of  the  imagin- 
ative and  impassioned  type,  and  practise 
composition  in  it  as  frequently  as  possible. 
In  ordinary  conversation,  they  should  keep 


Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric,         211 

their  minds  on  the  alert  in  active  search  of 
related  truths,  facts,  etc.,  so  as  to  be  able 
to  illustrate  what  they  say  by  reference  to 
previous  knowledge.  A  good  will  and  a 
strong  determination  to  succeed  will  enable 
them  in  the  end  to  so  connect  associated 
ideas  that  the  conception  of  one  will  spon- 
taneously suggest  the  others.  Among 
preachers  I  know  no  one  who  surpasses 
Massillon  in  this  association  of  ideas. 

Note;.  In  English  literature,  De  Quincey  and  Ma- 
caulay  stand  high  above  all  other  writers  of  this 
century  for  their  wealth  of  illustration.  In  the  latter 
this  was  due  to  a  prodigious  memory ;  the  former 
attributes  the  characteristic  in  his  case  to  **a  logical 
instinct  for  feeling  in  a  moment  the  secret  analogies  or 
parallelisms  that  connected  things  else  apparently  re- 
mote." In  another  place  he  tells  us  it  "was  due  to  the 
higher  faculty  of  an  electric  aptitude  for  seizing  ana- 
logies, and,  by  means  of  those  aerial  pontoons,  passing 
over  like  lightning  from  one  topic  to  another."  (See 
Minto's  Manual  of  English  Prose  I^iterature,  p.  39.) 

If  those  I  have  spoken  of  above  need  to 
be  stimulated  to  mental  alertness,  others  run 
into  the  opposite  extreme  and  have  to  be 
moderated.  To  these  almost  every  pre- 
sentive  word  opens  one  or  more  vistas  of 
related  thought.  They  realize  abstractions 
only  as  collections  of  associated  concrete 
notions ;  so  that  when  an  abstract  term  is 


212         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric. 

mentioned,  their  minds  see  in  it  only  the 
individual  objects,  facts,  or  ideas  for  which 
it  stands.  This  class  of  men  is  the  material 
out  of  which  orators  are  made.  But  such 
singular  power  of  word  and  thought 
association  must  be  kept  within  bounds,  or 
those  gifted  with  it  may  easily  degenerate 
into  flippant,  verbose  talkers.  They  must 
be  guided  by  the  demands  of  good  taste,  of 
harmony  and  proportion  of  members,  and 
of  uniform  growth  in  their  sermons. 

Comparison  bears  a  close  resemblance  to 
simile,  so  close,  indeed,  that  each  shades 
into  the  other  and  sometimes  can  scarcely 
be  distinguished  from  it.  In  both,  two  ob- 
jects, facts,  or  truths  are  set  side  by  side, 
resembling  each  other  in  one  or  more  points. 
In  comparison,  however,  those  two  objects, 
facts,  or  truths  belong  to  the  same  class ;  in 
simile,  they  belong  to  different  classes. 
Thus,  if  I  say,  John  is  like  James,  I  use 
comparison ;  but  if  I  say,  John  is  brave  as 
a  lion,  I  use  simile. 

NoT^.  This  rhetorical  distinction  need  not  be  taken 
into  account  in  preaching.  What  we  are  to  look  to  is 
the  appositeness  and  illustrative  power  of  the  relation. 

It  is  a  revealed  truthj  that  the  invisible 
world  is  clearly  seen  in  the  visible  world 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.         213 

around  us.  We  are  authorized,  then,  to 
prove  and,  a  fortiori,  to  illustrate  the  truths 
of  natural  religion  by  the  phenomena  and 
laws  of  mind  and  matter.  Even  revealed 
truth  may  be  illustrated  by  the  same  means, 
provided  we  do  not  encourage  thereby  a 
rationalizing  spirit  that  would  seek  a  reason 
for  ^^the  mystery  of  Grod  the  Father  and 
of  Christ  Jesus, '^  formulated  in  the  terms  of 
a  mathematical  solution.  Whatever  may 
be  the  evolution  of  theology  in  the  future. 
Christian  faith  must  always  be  imperfect 
vision.  Comparison  illustrates  either  a 
majori  or  a  pari, 

KxAMPiyES.  "If  in  the  green  wood  they  do  these 
things,  what  shaU  be  done  in  the  dry?"  If  earthly  fire 
given  for  man's  use  be  terrible  to  bear,  what  must 
eternal  fire  be,  created  not  for  comfort  but  for  punish- 
ment? "Can  a  woman  forget  her  infant,  so  as  not  to 
have  pity  on  the  son  of  her  womb?  and  if  she  should 
forget,  yet  will  not  I  forget  thee."  "Did  Abraham  be- 
lieve that  a  son  should  be  born  to  him  of  his  aged 
wife?  then  Mary's  faith  must  be  held  as  greater  when 
she  accepted  Gabriel's  message.  Did  Judith  consecrate 
her  widowhood  to  God  to  the  surprise  of  her  people? 
much  more  did  Mary,  from  her  first  youth,  devote  her 
virginity.  Did  Samuel,  when  a  child,  inhabit  the 
temple,  secluded  from  the  world?  Mary  too  was  by  her 
parents  lodged  in  the  same  holy  precincts,  even  at  the 
age  when  children  first  can  choose  between  good  and 
evil.     Was   Solomon  on  his  birth  called  'dear  to  the 


214         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric, 

Lord?'  and  still  not  the  destined  Mother  of  God  be 
dear  to  Him  from  the  moment  she  was  born?  But 
further  still ;  St.  John  Baptist  was  sanctified  by  the 
Spirit  before  his  birth;  shall  Mary  be  only  equal  to 
him?  is  it  not  fitting  that  her  privilege  should  surpass 
his?  is  it  wonderful,  if  grace,  which  anticipated  his 
birth  by  three  months,  should  in  her  case  run  up  to  the 
very  first  moment  of  her  being,  outstrip  the  imputation 
of  sin,  and  be  beforehand  with  the  usurpation  of 
Satan?"  Newman. 

When  we  place  two  objects,  facts,  or 
truths,  —  the  one  famihar  and  the  other 
unfamihar  —  side  by  side,  and  assert  that 
certain  characteristics  or  quahties  of  the 
former  belong  also  to  the  latter,  we  illustrate 
by  a  pari  comparison  (or  simile).  For 
example,  human  and  divine  hope  may  be 
thus  compared:  ^'Suppose  a  boy  hears  of 
some  toy  capable  of  doing  the  most  wonder- 
ful things.  He  feels  at  once  an  affection  for 
that  toy ;  he  desires  very  much  to  have  it ; 
he  determines  to  ask  for  it  at  the  first  oppor- 
tunity; he  expects,  nay,  is  sure  that  his 
father,  if  asked,  will  procure  it  for  him. 
Here  there  are  five  distinct  acts :  love  of  the 
object,  desire  to  have  it,  resolution  to  use 
the  best  means  to  secure  it,  expectation, 
and  certainty.  Now,  instead  of  the  toy  put 
eternal  happiness;   instead  of  the  earthly 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.         215 

father  put  our  Father  who  is  in  Heaven; 
instead  of  the  child's  resolution,  expec- 
tation, and  confidence,  put  our  resolution  to 
pray,  our  patient  expectation,  and  our  abso- 
lute certainty  that  we  shall  receive  what  we 
ask:  and  we  have  alLthe  essential  elements 
of  an  act  of  Christian  hope.''  The  Jiahit  of 
hope  may  be  illustrated  in  a  similar  manner 
by  comparing  it  to  the  state  of  expectation 
in  which  the  child  hves  awaiting  the  desired 
gift. 

The  following  from  Cardinal  Newman's 
Discourse  on  ^'Prospects  of  the  Catholic 
Missioner"  is  an  example  of  historical  com- 
parison. 

"It  is  true,  my  brethren,  this  is  a  strange  time,  a 

strange  place,  for  beginning  our  work Yes,  it  is 

aU  very  strange  to  the  world ;  but  no  new  thing  to 
her,  the  bride  of  the  Lamb,  whose  very  being  and 
primary  gifts  are  stranger  in  the  eyes  of  unbelief,  than 
any  details,  as  to  place  of  abode  and  method  of  pro- 
ceeding, in  which  they  are  manifested In  such  a 

time  as  this  did  the  prince  of  the  Apostles,  the  first 
Pope,  advance  toward  the  heathen  city,  where,  under  a 

Divine  guidance,  he  was  to  fix  his  seat In  such 

a  time  as  this  did  the  great  Doctor,  St.  Gregory  Nazi- 
anzen,  he  too  an  old  man,  a  timid  man,  a  retiring  man, 
fond  of  solitude  and  books,  and  unpractised  in  the 
struggles  of  the  world,  suddenly  appear  in  the  Arian 
city  of  Constantinople ;  and  in  despite  of  a  fanatical 
populace,  and  an  heretical  clergy,  preach  the  truth, 


216         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

and  prevail  —  to  his  own  wonder,  and  to  the  glory  of 
that  grace  which  is  strong  in  weakness,  and  is  ever 
nearest  to  its  triumph  when  it  is  most  despised.  In 
such  a  time  did  another  St.  Gregory,  the  first  Pope  of 
the  name,  when  all  things  were  now  failing,  when  bar- 
barians had  occupied  the  earth,  and  fresh  and  more 
savage  multitudes  were  pouring  down,  when  pesti- 
lence, famine,  and  heresy  ravaged  far  and  near  —  op- 
pressed as  he  was  with  continual  sickness,  his  bed  his 
Pontifical  Throne  —  in  such  a  time  did  he  rule,  direct 
and  consolidate  the  Church,  in  what  he  augured  were 
the  last  moments  of  the  world ;  subduing  Arians  in 
Spain,  Donatists  in  Africa,  a  third  heresy  in  Kgypt,  a 
fourth  in  Gaul,  humbling  the  pride  of  the  East,  recon- 
ciling the  Goths  to  the  Church,  bringing  our  own 
pagan  ancestors  within  her  pale,  and  completing  her 
order  and  beautifying  her  ritual,  while  he  strengthened 
the  foundations  of  her  power.  And  in  such  a  time  did 
the  six  Jesuit  Fathers,  Ignatius  and  his  companions, 
while  the  world  was  exulting  in  the  Church's  fall,  and 
*men  made  merry,  and  sent  their  gifts  one  to  another,' 
because  the  prophets  were  dead  who  'tormented  them 
that  dwelt  upon  earth,'  make  their  vow  in  the  small 
church  of  Montmartre  ;  and,  attracting  others  to  them 
by  the  sympathetic  force  of  zeal,  and  the  eloquence  of 
sanctity,  went  forward  calmly  and  silently  into  India 
in  the  Bast,  and  into  America  in  the  West,  and  while 
they  added  whole  nations  to  the  Church  abroad,  re- 
stored and  reanimated  the  Catholic  populations  at 
home." 

Contrast,  like  comparison,  is  the  juxta- 
position of  objects,  facts,  or  truths  of  the 
same  class ;  but  it  differs  from  it  in  being 
the  juxtaposition  of  opposites,  or  extremes. 


Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric.         217 

Vice  and  virtue,  happiness  and  misery,  the 
just  and  sinners,  are  examples  of  this  form 
of  illustration.  ^^Everything,'^  says  Abp. 
Whately,  ^^is  rendered  more  striking  by 
contrast;  and  almost  every  kind  of  subject- 
matter  affords  materials  for  contrasted  ex- 
pressions. Truth  is  opposed  to  error;  wise 
conduct  to  foolish;  different  causes  often 
produce  opposite  effects;  different  circum- 
stances dictate  to  prudence  opposite  con- 
duct; opposite  impressions  may  be  made 
by  the  same  object  on  different  minds;  and 
every  extreme  is  opposed  both  to  the  mean 
and  to  the  other  extreme. '' 

The  state  of  a  soul  devoid  of  faith  and 
sanctifying  grace  may  be  described,  to  il- 
lustrate all  that  is  involved  in  their  posses- 
sion. The  misery  and  disorder  of  a  drunk- 
ard^s  home  shows  the  blessings  of  tem- 
perance in  a  strong  light.  The  civil 
punishment  and  social  degradation  follow- 
ing a  career  of  crime  will  often  open  men's 
eyes  to  the  beauty  of  the  opposite  virtue 
more  effectually  than  a  hundred  texts  from 
Sacred  Scripture  and  the  Fathers.  Hence 
contrast  is  a  favorite  mode  of  illustration 
with  preachers;  it  is  a  natural  resource  not 


218         Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric, 

only  of  oratory  but  of  every  form  of  com- 
position; and  its  alternation  of  light  and 
shade,  if  managed  with  taste  and  skill,  may 
be  made  highly  artistic. 

Examples.  1.  The  first  Psalm,  Beatiis 
vir,  gives  a  beautiful  specimen  of  a  well 
developed  contrast. 

Blessed  is  the  man  who  hath  not  walked  in  the  coun- 
sel of  the  ungodly,  nor  stood  in  the  way  of  sinners,  nor 
set  in  the  chair  of  pestilence.  But  his  will  is  in  the 
law  of  the  Lord,  and  on  his  law  he  shall  meditate  day 
and  night.  And  he  shall  be  like  a  tree  which  is  planted 
near  the  running  waters,  which  shall  bring  forth  its 
fruit  in  due  season.  And  his  leaf  shall  not  fall  off:  and 
all  whatsoever  he  shall  do  shall  prosper.  Not  so  the 
wicked,  not  so:  but  like  the  dust,  which  the  wind 
driveth  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  Therefore  the 
wicked  shall  not  rise  again  in  judgment :  nor  sinners 
in  the  council  of  the  just.  For  the  Lord  knoweth  the 
way  of  the  just :  and  the  way  of  the  wicked  shall  perish. 

2.  "The  Holy  Ghost  who  is  the  principle  of  the  super- 
natural life  in  man,  will  not  compromise  or  come  to  an 
understanding  with  the  world  and  nature.  His  lessons 
to  the  Christian  soul  are  directly  contradictory  to  those 
of  nature  and  the  world.  They  say  there  is  no  higher 
order  than  that  naturally  known  by  his  reason  to  man 
on  earth ;  the  Divine  Spirit  affirms  that  there  is  a 
higher  order,  and  that  the  whole  natural  order  must,  if 
occasion  requires,  be  sacrificed  to  the  supernatural  wel- 
fare of  the  soul.  The  world  and  nature  are  averse  to, 
and  violently  repugn  against,  any  kind  of  mortification 
of  the  senses  or  the  will  of  man ;  the  Holy  Ghost  de- 
clares that  the  Christian's  whole  life  on  earth  must  be 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         219 

one  of  constant  self-denial,  submission,  and  sacrifice. 
The  world  and  nature  want  pleasure,  the  pleasure  of 
indolence,  the  pleasure  of  flattery,  the  pleasure  of  many 
friends,  of  state,  of  office,  of  the  first  places  ;  the  Holy 
Ghost  declares  that  the  Christian's  first  duty  is  to  carry 
his  cross  in  his  life,  that  life  is  a  serious  thing,  that 
death  is  the  time  for  rendering  our  account,  that  on 
this  earth  we  have  to  suffer  in  order  to  enjoy  in  Heaven 
a  recompense  which  shall  be  eternal.  The  world  and 
nature  do  not  wish  to  be  controlled ;  they  wish  to  think 
for  themselves  and  to  speak  for  themselves,  on  all  sub- 
jects, though  the  truth  is,  that  those  who  are  their 
votaries  are  the  dragslaves  of  public  opinion,  and  the 
blind  followers  of  the  blind.  The  Spirit  of  God  says, 
that  there  is  but  one  truth,  that  what  men  should  wish 
is,  not  to  be  independent  of  direction,  but  to  know  the 
truth,  honestly  to  seek  nothing  but  the  truth,  the  truth 
in  natural  science  and  social  problems,  and  the  truth 
in  religious  inquiry,  in  order  to  accept,  embrace,  and 
execute  the  mandates  of  truth."  (Discourses  from  the 
Pulpit.) 

Example  is  the  most  effective  form  of  il- 
lustration. It  is  a  narrative  of  some  occur- 
rence calculated  to  throw  light  on  the  truth 
we  are  expounding.  It  usually  has  a  cul- 
minating point  of  interest,  to  stimulate  at- 
tention ;  and  it  should  always  present  some 
striking  feature  of  resemblance  with  what- 
ever it  illustrates ;  —  in  other  words,  it 
should  be  apposite.  It  should,  moreover, 
be  chosen  with  prudence.  The  character 
and  prejudices  of  the  audience  ought  to  be 


220         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric, 

taken    into    account;    and   anything  that 
might  arouse  opposition  or  ^reate  disgust 
t- ought  to  be  carefully  avoided. 

Note.  If  we  liave  reason  to  thiuk  that  the  people 
we  are  addressing  hesitate  to  believe  in  extraordinary 
manifestations  of  the  supernatural  outside  the  Written 
Word,  we  should  by  all  means  seek  a  fitting  oppor- 
tunity to  warn  them  of  the  danger  of  such  an  attitude 
of  mind.  But,  until  we  shall  have  done  so,  we  should 
choose  no  examples  that  would  be  likely  to  excite  in- 
credulity or  repugnance.  And  yet  we  must  not  run 
into  the  opposite  extreme,  and  avoid  all  mention  of 
supernatural  occurrences  in  the  lives  of  the  Saints  and 
the  history  of  the  Church.  Such  omission  would  be 
likely  to  create  scandal  and  might  promote  a  spirit  of 
rationalism.  Besides,  it  would  come  either  from  a 
want  of  strong  faith  or  a  want  of  moral  courage  in  the 
preacher.     Bither  want  would  be  deplorable. 

No  example  based  on  questionable  au- 
thority should  be  used.  Nothing  but  truth, 
even  in  the  smallest  details,  should  ever  be 
heard  from  our  pulpits.  We  have  no  ex- 
cuse for  deviating  from  this  rule.  The 
Bible  and  authentic  history,  ecclesiastical 
and  civil,  together  with  the  carefully 
written  lives  of  great  and  holy  men,  supply 
us  with  abundant  sources  of  examples  with- 
out going  to  look  for  others  in  the  shadow- 
land  of  popular  tradition  and  legend. 
Neither  are  we  allowed  to  exaggerate  details 
for  the  purpose  of  effect.    Facts  seldom  oc- 


Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric.         221 

cur  in  real  life  with  the  artistic  roundness 
and  finish  that  fiction  gives  them.  Some 
popular  non-Catholic  preachers  seem  not  to 
be  aware  of  this  truth,  and  they  give  anec- 
dotes from  personal  experience,  so  telling 
and  apposite,  and  so  classical  in  their  obser- 
vance of  the  unities,  that  to  claim  belief  in 
them  as  actual  occurrences  is  an  insult  to 
common  sense,  a  profanity  of  truth,  an 
outrage  on  the  Grospel.  Such  preachers 
acquire  a  short-lived  popularity;  but  they 
have  no  influence  on  Christian  faith  and 
conduct. 

Still,  though  so  much  abused,  examples 
from  everyday  life  will  always  hold  an  im- 
portant place  in  the  sermons  of  every  live 
preacher  who  knows  human  nature  and  the 
many-strand  cords  by  which  it  is  drawn  to 
God.  When  he  reads  the  newspaper  and 
visits  his  people  in  their  homes  and  hears 
local  gossip  —  as  he  will  often  have  to  hear 
it  —  he  will  be  on  the  alert  to  find  illustra- 
tive matter  for  his  sermons,  and  especially 
familiar  examples  calculated  to  make 
Christian  faith  and  duty  more  intelligible 
and  interesting.  He  will  take  notes  of 
current  incidents,   as  well  as  of  striking 


222         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric, 

thoughts  or  events  that  he  will  come  across 
in  his  general  reading  (the  recitation  of  his 
breviary  included);  he  will  peruse  those 
notes  from  time  to  time ;  and  after  a  little 
his  mind  will  be  enriched  with  an  accumu- 
lating fund  of  practical  knowledge  and  ex- 
perience that  will  be  of  inestimable  value 
to  him  in  his  preaching. 

An  example  has  frequently  to  be  in^^^ented 
to  illustrate  a  general  truth ;  but  when  this 
is  done,  it  should  be  made  plain  that  it  is 
not  given  as  an  actual  occurrence. 

The  value  of  examples,  suitable,  pointed, 
and  well  applied,  in  sermons  cannot  be 
overstated.  ^ ^Example,''  says  Burke,  ^^is 
the  school  of  mankind,  and  they  will  learn 
at  no  other.  ^'  Our  divine  Lord  taught  in 
parables,  which  are  simply  forms  of  ex- 
ample; and  it  is  hard  to  understand  how 
those  who  carry  on  the  work  of  the  Gospel 
which  He  began,  presume  to  improve  on  His 
method  of  instruction  by  excluding,  as  if 
by  design,  all  examples  from  their  ser- 
mons. By  doing  so,  they  certainly  do  not 
strengthen  or  enlarge  the  influence  of  the 
pulpit.  *^The  place  of  parable  in  teach- 
ing,'^   says    Drummond,    ^'and    especially 


Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric.         223 

after  the  sanction  of  the  greatest  of 
Teachers,  must  always  be  recognized.  The 
very  necessities  of  language  indeed  demand 
this  method  of  presenting  truth.  The  tem- 
poral is  the  husk  and  framework  of  the 
eternal,  and  thoughts  can  be  uttered  only 
through  things.''  Trench,  in  his  work  on 
Parables,  goes  farther  and  gives  them  ^^a 
measure  of  evidential  as  well  as  illustrative 
value.''  ^'The  parable,"  he  writes,  ^^or 
other  analogy  to  spiritual  truth  appropri- 
ated from  the  world  of  nature  or  man,  is 
not  merely  illustrative,  but  also  in  some 
sort  proof.  It  is  not  merely  that  these 
analogies  assist  to  make  the  truth  intel- 
ligible or,  if  intelligible  before,  present  it 
more  vividly  to  the  mind,  which  is  all  that 
some  will  allow  them.  Their  power  lies 
deeper  than  this,  in  the  harmony  uncon- 
sciously felt  by  all  men,  and  which  all 
deeper  minds  have  delighted  to  trace, 
between  the  natural  and  spiritual  worlds, 
so  that  analogies  from  the  first  are  felt  to 
be  something  more  than  illustrations  hap- 
pily but  yet  arbitrarily  chosen.  They  are 
arguments,  and  may  be  alleged  as  wit- 
nesses ;  the  world  of  nature  being  through- 


224         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

out  a  witness  for  the  world  of  spirit,  pro- 
ceeding from  the  same  hand,  growing  out 
of  the  same  root,  and  being  constituted  for 
the  same  end.'' 

The  application  of  an  example  to  the 
truth  illustrated  should  be  made  in  a  few 
clear,  pithy  words.  Few  things  in  a  ser- 
mon are  more  tiresome  than  lengthy  ex- 
planations of  illustrative  matter.  Illustra- 
tions should  be  themselves  explanatory; 
and  the  people  may  be  credited  with  the 
intelligence  necessary  to  see  their  applica- 
tion, at  least  with  the  aid  of  a  brief  com- 
ment by  the  preacher. 

NoTEj.  A  preacher  has  to  guard  against  the  exces- 
sive use  of  examples,  especially  of  anecdotes  taken 
from  the  records  of  every  day  life.  A  profusion  of 
these  is  apt  to  lead  an  audience  to  suspect  that  the  ser- 
mon is  intended  for  entertainment  rather  than  for  in- 
struction and  persuasion.  Yet  anecdotes  in  the  Catho- 
lic pulpit  will  never  deserve  the  following  severe 
criticism  of  Professor  Mahaffy  in  his  work  on  the 
"Decay  of  Modern  Preaching"  (p.  125):  "To  this  feel- 
ing, the  Excessive  love  of  Variety,  may  be  ascribed 
the  vulgar  habit  of  introducing  anecdotes  in  the  pulpit, 
—  anecdotes,  which  are  not  only  foolish  and  beside  the 
point,  but  often  practically  untrue,  inasmuch  as  the 
preacher  always  explains  the  facts,  and  the  explanation 
may  be  palpably  invented.  Anecdotage  in  the  pulpit 
gratifies  only  the  most  ignorant  and  vulgar  of  hearers, 
and  from  vulgar  I  mean  to  exclude  all  those,  of  how- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         225 

ever  low  degree,  who  come  to  hear  seriously  for  the 
sake  of  spiritual  benefit." 

The  following  is  a  fair  specimen  of  an 
anecdote  well  adapted  for  pulpit  use ;  but  it 
would  be  more  telling  if  authenticated  by- 
details  of  time,  place,  and  witnesses. 

"On  the  deck  of  a  foundering  vessel  stood  a  negro 
slave.  The  last  man  left  on  board,  he  was  about  to  step 
into  the  life-boat.  She  was  laden  to  the  gunwale,  to 
the  water's  edge.  Bearing  in  his  arms  what  seemed  a 
heavy  bundle,  the  boat's  crew  who  with  difficulty  kept 
her  afloat  in  the  roaring  sea,  refused  to  receive  him.  If 
he  come  it  must  be  unencumbered  and  alone,  on  that 
they  insisted.  He  must  either  leave  that  bundle  and 
leap  in,  or  throw  it  in  and  stay  to  perish.  Pressing  it 
to  his  bosom,  he  opened  its  folds ;  and  there,  warmly 
wrapped,  lay  two  little  children,  whom  their  father  had 
committed  to  his  care.  He  kissed  them,  and  bade  the 
sailors  carry  his  affectionate  farewell  to  his  master, 
telling  him  how  faithfully  he  had  fulfilled  his  charge. 
Then  lowering  the  children  into  the  boat,  which 
pushed  off,  the  dark  man  stood  alone  on  the  deck,  to 
go  down  with  the  sinking  ship,  a  noble  example  of 
bravery,  and  true  fidelity,  and  the  'love  that  seeketh 
not  its  own'." 

Quotation  is  generally  used  to  prove  or 
enforce  truth ;  but  it  is  equally  available  for 
illustrating  it.  Water  is  clearest  at  its 
f  ountainhead :  truth  is  most  luminous  when 
it  issues  fresh  from  the  lips  of  God.  The 
Bible  is  God's  word;  what  we  preach  is 
also  His  word:  what  more  fitting,   then, 


226         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

what  more  reasonable  or  effectual  than  to 
interpret  and  illustrate  His  message  in  His 
own  words?  However  eloquent  we  may  be, 
however  extensive  our  reading  and  capaci- 
ous our  memory,  we  shall  never  find  in 
human  knowledge  or  in  the  pathos  and 
tragedy  of  human  life,  material  for  illustrat- 
ing our  sermons  equal  in  light  and  force  to 
that  which  Sacred  Scripture  supplies.  Many 
of  St.  Bernard^s  ^^Sermons^^  are  mosaics 
formed  out  of  Scripture  texts,  and  all  have 
the  tone  and  flavor  and  coloring  of  the  in- 
spired word;  hence,  of  all  the  Fathers, 
Latin  and  G-reek,  he  is  the  brightest,  as 
well  as  the  most  beautiful  and  attractive; 
and  his  spoken  words,  as  they  have  come 
down  to  us,  seem  to  have  lost  nothing  of 
the  fervor  and  unction  of  their  first  de- 
livery. 

It  is,  I  trust,  unnecessary  to  dilate  on  the 
obvious  advantages  and  importance  of 
focusing,  so  to  say,  all  the  light  we  can 
gather  from  the  words  of  Scripture  on 
whatever  truth  we  are  propounding.  Nor 
are  we  confined  to  the  literal  sense  of  a 
sacred  text  when  we  use  it  for  illustration. 
For  this  purpose,  we  are  authorized  by  the 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         227 

^xample  of  the  inspired  writers  themselves 
to  use  what  our  commentators  call  the  sen- 
sus  accommodatitius . 

Short,  pithy  texts  are  better  adapted  for 
illustration  than  long  passages;  and  in- 
cidents or  occurrences  are,  perhaps,  more 
telling  than  either.  These,  however,  belong 
to  another  kind  of  illustration,  namely,  ex- 
ample or  comparison. 

The  Fathers  and  other  spiritual  writers 
are  full  of  felicitous  expressions  exquisitely 
suited  to  throw  light  on  any  subject  we 
have  to  develop.  It  is  not  of  much  practical 
use  to  recommend  the  reading  of  the  former 
to  an  American  priest,  as  the  works  are 
beyond  his  reach.  But  there  are  selections 
from  them  that  can  be  easily  procured ;  and 
above  all  there  is  the  Breviary  which  we 
read  every  day  and  which  contains  many 
of  the  finest  specimens  of  patristic  thought. 
The  continuity  with  which  the  Divine  Office 
is  to  be  recited  does  not  prevent  us  from 
taking  a  note  of  any  passage  that  strikes  us 
while  reading.  ^^Quia  singulis  psalmis,'^ 
writes  D^Annibale  in  his  trenchant  style, 
^^immo  singulis  psalmi  versiculis  inest  pro- 
pria et  ab  aliis  discreta  significatio,  quaevis 


228         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

interruptio  caret  letali:  quin  et  levi,  si  vel 
longior  non  fuerit;  vel  ex  causa  honesta 
quamvis  non  gravi.''  (Summula,  pars  III. 
p.  141.)  Such  notes  would  grow  impercep- 
tibly into  a  veritable  thesaurus  patrum, 
which  would  supply  valuable  aid  in  the  pre- 
paration of  a  sermon.  Of  course,  striking 
Scripture  texts  might  be  taken  in  a  similar 
manner ;  yet  it  is  best  to  collect  these  from 
the  vernacular  version  of  the  Bible. 

Quotations  from  profane  writers  seem  to 
have  the  sanction  of  St.  Paul,  who  in  his 
address  to  the  Athenians  cited  some  of  their 
own  poets.  When  we  have  to  preach  to  an 
audience  constituted  like  that  which  he  con- 
fronted, we  are  free  to  refer  to  any  authority 
that  our  hearers  respect;  but  when  we 
speak  to  a  Catholic  audience,  I  think  we 
can  rarely  quote  a  purely  literary  work 
without  more  or  less  impropriety, 

We  sometimes  hear  preachers  giving 
quotations  in  Latin  before  they  give  the  En- 
glish version.  The  practice  has  no  reason 
to  support  it  and  in  my  judgment  ought  to 
be  discontinued. 


CHAPTER  XIY. 
Historical  Development. 

I  have  already  said  that  formal  proof  is 
out  of  place  in  a  sermon  to  a  Catholic 
audience.  Such  proof  would  logically  im- 
ply either  doubt  or  incredulity  in  the 
hearers ;  and  in  matters  of  faith  or  morals, 
whether  explicitly  defined  or  universally 
taught  through  the  Church,  neither  doubt 
nor  incredulity  can  be  recognized  or  per- 
mitted. A  Catholic's  motive  for  his  belief 
is  the  veracitas  Dei  revelantis;  and  to  add 
other  motives  to  this  is  somewhat  analogous 
to  proving  to  a  man  that  fire  burns  or  the 
sun  shines  or  heat  is  not  cold.  What  the 
people  want  is  clear,  full,  satisfactory  know- 
ledge regarding  the  infallible  authority  of 
the  Church  and  the  consequent  credibility 
of  her  teaching.  Bring  this  knowledge 
home  to  them  as  a  first  principle,  and  you 
will  have  no  need  to  prove  any  doctrinal 
or  moral  truth  you  announce.  Your  com- 
(229) 


230         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric. 

mission  to  teach  the  Gospel  is  sufficient 
guarantee  to  them  of  the  certainty  of  your 
teaching. 

Yet  human  reason  does  not  rest  in  faith 
as  its  normal  condition.  It  aspires  to  hnow- 
ledge  of  the  truth  believed ;  and  although  it 
awaits,  in  silence  and  in  hope,  for  the  man- 
ifestation of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  still  it 
searches  earnestly  for  all  the  knowledge  it 
can  acquire  regarding  what  it  sees  now 
through  a  glass  in  a  dark  manner. 

This  natural  and  legitimate  longing  of 
the  Christian  soul  can  be  fully  satisfied  only 
in  eternity.  The  faithful  know  this  and 
acquiesce  in  it ;  and  it  helps  them  to  deny 
ungodliness  and  worldly  desires  and  to  look 
with  straining  eyes  for  the  blessed  hope  and 
coming  of  the  great  Grod  and  our  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ.  But  meanwhile,  we  can  do 
much  to  help  them.  We  can  point  out  to 
them  that  ^^it  is  a  great  evidence  of  truth, 
in  the  case  of  revealed  teaching,  that  it  is  so 
consistent,  that  it  so  hangs  together,  that 
one  thing  springs  out  of  another,  that  each 
part  requires  and  is  required  by  the  rest.'' 
(Newman.) 

But,  what  is  more  helpful  still  and  more 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         231 

satisfying  to  the  faithful,  is  this:  In  the 
leading  dogmas  of  faith  and  the  cardinal 
principles  of  Christian  morals,  we  can  take 
thena  back  to  the  days  when  the  Son  of  Grod 
dwelt  among  us,  visible  in  the  flesh;  we 
can  place  them  before  Him,  and  they  can 
listen  to  Him  as  He  announced  the  mystery 
or  truth  that  we  His  ministers  and  ambas- 
sadors are  now  announcing.  We  can  point 
out  the  occasion  and  circumstances  and  the 
very  words  of  the  original  revelation  in  the 
written  record  of  it  dictated  by  Grod  Him- 
self. We  can  show  them  the  same  revela- 
tion taught  in  the  early  Church,  impugned 
perhaps  by  heresy,  but  defended,  ex- 
plained and  developed,  until  after  the 
heresy,  like  a  lopped  branch,  had  crumbled 
to  dust,  the  truth  shone  out  clearer  and 
brighter  than  before.  It  is  mentioned  in 
symbols  of  the  faith  and  in  the  writings  of 
the  Fathers;  St.  Cyprian  preaches  it  in 
Carthage,  St.  Grregory  in  Neo-Caesarea,  St. 
Ambrose  in  Milan,  St.  Augustine  in  Hippo, 
St.  John  Chrysostom  in  Constantinople; 
and  so  down  the  centuries,  in  the  East  and 
in  the  West,  from  the  Elbe  to  the  Nile,  by 
the  cultured  Glreek  and  the  barbarous  Groth, 


232  ISIanual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

the  truth  we  now  teach  has  been  "always 
taught  and  believed  as  part  of  that  revela- 
tion which  Christ  entrusted  to  His  Church, 
to  enlighten  them  that  sit  in  darkness  and 
in  the  shadow  of  death. 

The  perpetuity  and  universality  of  a  re- 
vealed truth,  historically  unfolded,  is,  then, 
a  material  help  to  the  faithful  in  satisfying, 
as  far  as  can  be  done,  their  craving  for 
fuller  knowledge  and  comprehension.  We 
should,  therefore,  after  the  definition  and 
illustration  of  whatever  truth  we  are  en- 
gaged in  teaching,  give  its  development 
from  its  first  written  record  —  generally  in 
Sacred  Scripture  —  down,  from  century  to 
century,  till  we  reach  our  own  day ;  when 
we  should  dilate  on  the  world-wide  com- 
munion of  the  Church — on  the  hundreds  of 
millions  of  the  human  race,  of  all  countries, 
of  all  ages,  of  all  degrees  and  professions, 
united  with  us  at  this  moment  in  one  com- 
mon belief  in  the  doctrine  we  announce. 
^'It  is,'^  says  Moehler,  in  his  ^^ Symbolism,^' 
^^with  the  profoundest  love,  reverence,  and 
devotion,  the  Catholic  embraces  the  Church 
.  4  .  .  .  The  idea  of  community,  in  the  first 
place,  satisfies  his  feelings  and  his  imagina- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         233 

tion,  and  in  the  second  place,  is  equally- 
agreeable  to  his  reason;  while,  in  the  third 
place,  the  living  appropriation  of  this  idea 
by  his  will  appears  to  him  to  concur  with 
the  highest  religious  and  ethical  duty  of 

humanity No  more  beautiful  object 

presents  itself  to  the  imagination  of  the 
Catholic  —  none  more  agreeably  captivates 
his  feelings,  than  the  image  of  the  harmoni- 
ous inter- workings  of  countless  spirits,  who, 
though  scattered  over  the  whole  globe,  en- 
dowed with  freedom  and  possessing  the 
power  to  strike  off  into  every  deviation  to 
the  right  or  to  the  left,  yet,  preserving  still 
their  various  peculiarities,  constitute  one 
great  brotherhood  for  the  advancement  of 
each  other's  spiritual  existence  —  represent- 
ing one  idea,  that  of  the  reconciliation  of 
men  with  Grod,  who  on  that  account  have 
been  reconciled  with  one  another,  and  are 
become  one  body.  (Eph.  iv.,  11-16.).  .  .  . 
But  who  can  deem  it  a  matter  of  astonish- 
ment, that  Catholics  should  be  filled  with 
joy  and  hope,  and  enraptured  at  the  view  of 
the  beautiful  construction  of  their  Church, 
(and  that  they)  should  contemplate  with 
delight  that  grand  corporation  which  they 


234         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

form,  since  the  philosophers  of  art  declare, 
that  the  beautitul  is  only  truth  manifested 

and  embodied Yet  it  is  not  merely  the 

imagination  and  the  feelings  of  the  Catholic 
which  are  contented  by  this  idea  of  the 
Church,  but  his  reason  also  is  thereby  satis- 
fied  '' 

This  historical  development  of  doctrine 
will  not  only  satisfy  the  earnest  believer, 
but  it  will  also  enable  him  to  defend  his 
faith  with  intelligence  and  to  vindicate  the 
teaching  of  the  Church  against  current  mis- 
representations and  calumnies.  ^  'Argument- 
ation,^' as  I  have  stated  already,  has  no 
place  in  the  Sunday  sermon ;  but  historical 
development  gives  all  the  information  that 
could  be  conveyed  under  the  form  of  the 
most  convincing  proof,  while  it  implies  no 
wavering  or  unbelief  on  the  part  of  the 
hearer,  creates  no  critical  temper  in  him,  — 
on  the  contrary,  enamors  him  of  his  faith, 
makes  it  his  pride,  his  glory,  his  invaluable 
treasure. 

The  moral  life  of  the  Church  belongs  to 
her  history,  at  least  as  much  as  her  political 
relations  with  civil  society;  yet  compara- 
tively little  is  known  in  detail  about  the 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         235 

practice  of  the  Christian  virtues  in  indi- 
vidual and  family  life,  about  the  reception 
of  the  Sacraments,  and  about  the  observance 
of  ecclesiastical  discipline,  in  the  past  ages 
of  the  Church.  In  moral  sermons,  there- 
fore, the  history  of  a  virtue  or  vice  must  be 
for  the  most  part  confined  to  the  evidences 
of  its  revelation  in  Sacred  Scripture.  We 
have,  of  course,  edifying  examples  of  the 
heroic  practice  of  all  the  virtues  in  the  lives 
of  the  saints;  but  those  examples  belong 
more  appropriately  to  illustration. 

The  history  of  a  doctrinal  truth  should  be 
given  with  clearness,  simplicity,  accuracy 
and  concreteness.  Digressions,  metaphysi- 
cal niceties,  vague  or  ambiguous  phraseo- 
logy, and  all  unnecessary  abstract  reasoning 
are  out  of  place  here.  As  history  is  mainly 
occupied  with  facts,  the  history  of  doctrine 
ought  to  consist  of  these  rather  than  of  tex- 
tual exegesis,  although  this  too  is  neces- 
sary and  should  be  given  briefly  in  the  form 
of  a  carefully  prepared  paraphrase.  The 
style  most  suitable  is  the  conversational  — 
as  far  removed  as  possible  from  intemperate 
invective  and  self-confident  dogmatism. 
The  tone  and  delivery  should  be  earnest, 
animated,  and  persuasive. 


236         Manual  of  Sacred  Bnetoric, 

The  Scriptural  source  of  a  doctrine  ought 
to  be  the  first  given.  For  this  any  treatise 
on  dogmatic  theology  will  supply  abundant 
texts.  It  is  not  the  number  of  those  texts 
that  tells  with  an  audience,  as  much  as  the 
obviousness  of  their  application  to  the  truth 
we  are  expounding.  Let  us  seek  out,  then, 
one  or  two  of  the  most  applicable,  and  either 
omit  the  others  or  introduce  them  in- 
formally in  our  paraphrase  of  those  we 
select.  When  there  are  two  texts  equally 
relevant,  one  from  the  Grospels  and  the 
other  from  the  Epistles,  it  is  best  to  quote 
both,  as  we  thus  consult  for  the  movement 
of  the  history  we  are  giving. 

Texts  that  we  intend  to  use  in  preaching 
should  never  be  taken  on  trust  from  the 
books  in  which  they  are  quoted.  They 
should  be  read  in  the  Bible  itself  and  studied 
in  connexion  with  their  contexts.  This  will 
give  us  a  confidence  in  explaining  them  that 
we  should  not  otherwise  feel ;  but  especially 
it  will  save  us  from  all  danger  of  mis- 
quotation. 

I  stated  in  the  last  chapter  that  for  the 
purpose  of  illustration  the  words  of  a  text 
may  be  extended  beyond  their  primary  in- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         237 

elusion  and  adapted  to  objects,  facts  or 
truths  which  the  sacred  writer  had  not  be- 
fore his  mind.  Such  adaptation  is  altogether 
out  of  place  in  this  department  of  exposition. 
^''Ntmquam  licet  sensum^^^  writes  Cornely, 
^^quem  per  accommodationem  verbis  Scripturae 
ingerimuSj  pro  vera  et  genuina  Spiritiis  Sancti 
sententia  aliis  obtnidere;  quare  in  dogmatum 
demonstratione  aut  confirmatione  accommo- 
dationi  non  est  locus. ^^  What  we  are  to  look 
for,  then,  in  the  Scripture  text  or  passage 
we  adduce  is  its  literal,  or  historical,  sense 
—  the  sense  intended  to  be  conveyed  directly 
by  the  words.  To  find  this  sense,  we  should 
study  the  words  of  the  text  according  to  the 
laws  of  hermeneutics.  However,  as  few 
priests  have  time  for  such  original  study,  it 
is,  generally  speaking,  sufficient  to  read 
carefully  the  interpretation  of  the  text  given 
in  some  approved  commentary.  We,  next, 
read  the  context  and  find  out  its  relation  to 
the  passage  we  intend  to  quote.  We  note 
also  the  circumstances  of  the  revelation  — 
the  speaker,  the  audience,  the  time,  the 
place,  etc.  When  we  have  thus  mastered 
the  text  in  its  meaning,  scope,  relations, 
and  most  important  circumstances,  it  yet 


238         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

remains  to  paraphrase  it  in  as  clear,  popular, 
and  pointed  a  form  as  possible.  The  exact 
meaning  of  the  words  must  be  given  with 
precision ;  their  application  to  the  truth  we 
are  expounding,  must  be  made  obvious ;  and 
the  diction  and  phraseology  must  be  so 
simple,  that  it  will  be  impossible  to  mis- 
understand them. 

BxAMPi^KS.  1.  " .  .  .  Hence  it  is  that  St.  Paul,  as 
feeling  the  majesty  of  that  new  nature  which  is  imparted 
to  us,  addresses  himself  in  a  form  of  indignation  to 
those  who  forget  it,  'What !'  he  says,  'what!  know  ye 
not  that  your  body  is  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost?* 
As  if  he  said,  'Can  you  be  so  mean-spirited  and  base- 
minded  as  to  dishonor  yourselves  in  the  devil's  ser- 
vice? Should  we  not  pity  the  man  of  birth,  or  station, 
or  character,  who  degraded  himself  in  the  eyes  of  the 
world,  who  forfeited  his  honor,  broke  his  word,  or 
played  the  coward?  And  shall  not  we,  from  mere  sense 
of  propriety,  be  ashamed  to  defile  our  spiritaal  purity, 
the  royal  blood  of  the  second  Adam,  with  deeds  of  dark- 
ness? Let  us  leave  it  to  the  hosts  of  evil  spirits,  to  the 
haters  of  Christ,  to  eat  the  dust  of  the  earth  all  the  days 
of  their  life.  Cursed  are  they  above  all  cattle,  and 
above  every  beast  of  the  field ;  grovelling  shall  they  go, 
till  they  come  to  their  end  and  perish.  But  for  Christ- 
ians, it  is  theirs  to  walk  in  the  light,  and  to  lift  up 
their  hearts,  as  looking  out  for  Him  who  went  away, 
that  He  might  return  to  them  again." 

2.  "St.  Paul  says,  'our  conversation  is  in  heaven,' 
or  in  other  words,  heaven  is  our  city.  We  know  what 
it  is  to  be  a  citizen  of  this  world ;  it  is  to  have  interests, 
rights,  privileges,  duties,  connexions,  in  some  particu- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric,         239 

lar  town  or  state ;  to  depend  upon  it,  and  to  be  bound  to 
defend  it ;  to  be  part  of  it.  Now  all  this  the  Christian 
is  in  repect  to  heaven.  Heaven  is  his  city,  earth  is 
not  ....  'Here,'  as  the  same  Apostle  says  in  another 
place,  *we  have  no  continuing  city,  but  we  seek  one  to 
come.'  And  therefore  he  adds  to  the  former  of  these 
texts,  'from  whence  also  we  look  for  the  Saviour,  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.'  This  is  the  very  definition  of  a 
Christian,  —  one  who  looks  for  Christ ;  not  who  looks 
for  gain,  or  distinction,  or  power,  or  pleasure,  or  com- 
fort, but  who  looks  'for  the  Saviour,  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.'  This,  according  to  the  Scripture,  is  the  es- 
sential mark,  this  is  the  foundation  of  a  Christian, 
from  which  everything  else  follows ;  whether  he  is  rich 
or  poor,  high  or  low,  is  a  further  matter,  which  may  be 
considered  apart ;  but  he  surely  is  a  primitive  Christian, 
and  he  only,  who  has  no  aim  of  this  world,  who  has  no 
wish  to  be  other  in  this  world  than  he  is ;  whose 
thoughts  and  aims  have  relation  to  the  unseen,  the 
future  world ;  who  has  lost  his  taste  for  this  world, 
sweet  and  bitter  being  the  same  to  him ;  who  fulfills 
the  same  Apostle's  exhortation  in  another  Epistle, 
'Set  your  affection  on  things  above,  not  on  things  on 
the  earth,  for  ye  are  dead,  and  your  life  is  hid  with 
Christ  in  God.  When  Christ,  who  is  our  life,  shall 
appear,  then  shall  ye  also  appear  with  him  in  glory.'  '* 
3.  "St.  Peter  —  who  was  afterwards  the  Pope  of  Rome 
—  began  life  as  a  fisherman,  on  the  shores  of  the  Sea 
of  Galilee.  He  had  his  boats,  he  had  his  nets;  he 
swept  those  waters,  pursuing  his  humble  trade  in  com- 
pany with  James  and  John,  the  sons  of  Zebedee,  and 
with  Andrew,  his  own  elder  brother.  These  men  had 
passed  the  night  upon  the  bosom  of  the  waters,  toiling 
and  laboring,  but  they  had  taken  nothing.  Sad  and 
dispirited  for  so  much  time  and  labor  lost,  they  landed 


240         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

from  their  boats  in  the  morning;  and  they  took  out 
their  nets  to  wash  them.  Whilst  they  were  thus  en- 
gaged, a  great  multitude  appeared  in  sight  —  men  who 
followed  the  lyord  Jesus  Christ,  and  pressed  around 
Him,  that  they  might  hear  the  words  of  divine  truth 
from  His  lips.  He  came  to  the  shores  of  the  lake,  and 
He  entered  into  one  of  the  boats ;  and  the  Evangelist 
takes  good  care  to  tell  us  that  the  boat  into  which  the 
Saviour  stepped  was  Simon  Peter's  boat  ....  After 
He  had  enlightened  their  (the  people's)  minds  with 
the  treasures  of  the  divine  wisdom  which  flowed  from 
Him,  He  turned  to  Peter  and  said  to  him :  'I^aunch  out 
into  the  deep,  and  let  down  your  nets  for  a  draught.* 
Peter  answering  said:  'Master,  we  have  labored  all 
night  and  we  have  taken  nothing ;  but  at  Thy  word  I 
will  let  down  the  net.'  No  sooner  does  he  cast  that 
net  into  the  sea,  under  the  eyes,  and  at  the  command 
of  Jesus  Christ,  than  it  is  instantly  filled  with  fishes, 
and  Peter's  boat  is  filled  until  it  is  almost  sinking. 
This  is  the  fact  recorded.     What  does  it  mean  ?" 

The  first  two  of  these  examples  are  given  to  show 
how  texts,  to  be  adequately  paraphrased  so  that  their 
application  may  be  thoroughly  realized,  will  sometimes 
need  ample  extension  and  even  illustration.  The  last 
example  gives  the  local  setting  of  a  truth  whose  history 
is  to  be  traced. 

The  history  of  the  source  and  develop- 
ment of  a  revealed  truth  must,  however, 
have  much  more  onward  movement  in  it 
than  is  found  in  any  of  the  above  extracts. 
It  must,  indeed,  be  rather  a  spirited  histori- 
cal sketch,  than  a  detailed  history,  of  the 
doctrine ;  otherwise  it  would  grow  out  of  all 


Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric.         241 

proportion  with  the  rest  of  the  sermon.  It 
is  necessary,  therefore,  that  the  paraphrase 
should  be  brief  and,  at  the  same  time,  clear 
and  pointed.  It  is  also  necessary  that  leading 
facts  alone  should  be  given ;  yet  those  facts 
must  be  made  instinct  with  life  and  energy, 
for  they  have  a  double  purpose  to  serve :  to 
give  light  to  the  believer ;  and  to  flash  con- 
viction on  the  unbeliever,  —  this,  however, 
indirectly  and  by  implication. 

After  the  Scripture  sources  of  a  doctrine 
have  been  given,  we  next  sliow  its  working 
and  development  in  the  life  of  the  Church. 
To  do  this,  we  make  liberal  use  of  eccles- 
iastical history,  including  the  writings  of 
the  Fathers,  the  rise  and  fall  of  heresies, 
the  enactments  of  councils,  the  authorized 
symbols  of  faith,  and  the  universal  practice 
of  the  faithful,  as  far  as  it  implies  or  em- 
bodies the  doctrine  we  are  explaining.  This 
reference  to  Church  history  for  the  eluci- 
dation of  doctrine,  so  far  from  being  a  novel 
idea,  dates  back  to  early  Christian  times. 
It  is  based  on  the  continuity  and  apostolicity 
of  faith;  and  it  is  singularly  adapted  to 
popular  discourse,  because  it  is  made  up 
chiefly  of  concrete  historical  facts. 


242         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

Passages  from  the  Fathers  are  quoted 
appropriately  and  usefully,  when  the  audi- 
ence has  been  instructed  thoroughly  in  the 
authority  due  to  them  and  the  conditions 
necessary  for  placing  that  authority  beyond 
dispute .  But  the  mention  of  ^  ^  the  Fathers ' ' , 
as  a  rule,  conveys  only  a  very  vague  and  in- 
definite idea  to  the  Catholic  layman.  It  is 
true,  this  should  not  be  so;  but,  perhaps, 
his  ignorance  is  not  altogether  his  fault ;  — 
in  any  case,  until  it  is  entirely  removed,  we 
should  never  adduce  the  testimony  of  a 
Father  without  stating  who  he  was,  when 
he  lived,  and  what  is  the  form  of  the  work 
from  which  the  testimony  is  taken  —  pole- 
mical, apologetic,  dogmatic,  catechetical, 
homiletic,  exegetic,  etc. 

The  official  action  of  the  Church  as- 
sembled in  council  during  the  first  five 
centuries  supplies  stronger  and  more  im- 
pressive, as  well  as  more  satisfactory,  evi- 
dence of  the  antiquity  of  a  doctrine  than 
the  writings  of  any  individual  Father. 

A  large  body  of  venerable,  saintly  bishops, 
successors  of  the  Apostles,  are  come  together 
from  every  country  and  province  of  the 
known  world,  to  bear  witness  to  the  tra- 


Manual  oj  Sacred  Bhetoric,         243 

ditional  teaching  of  their  respective  churches. 
The  Roman  Pontiff,  as  vicar  of  Christ  and 
head  of  the  universal  Church,  presides  by 
his  delegates.  Some  error  against  the  an- 
cient faith  has  been  broached,  and  its  author 
is  there  at  the  invitation  of  the  council  to 
defend  it.  The  Holy  Grhost  is  invoked  in 
solemn  prayer.  The  heresiarch  is  heard,  if 
he  choose  to  speak ;  and  then  the  votes  of 
the  bishops  are  taken,  the  error  is  condemned 
as  heretical,  and  the  Catholic  doctrine 
affected  by  it  is  formulated  in  more  explicit 
and  definite  terms  than  before.  The  voices 
of  men  who  were,  for  the  most  part,  utter 
strangers  to  one  another,  who  had  come 
from  different,  and  many  from  the  most 
distant,  countries,  —  of  men,  too,  distin- 
guished for  their  learning  and  holiness  — 
the  voices  of  such  men  concurring  without 
possible  collusion  in  a  profession  of  one  and 
the  same  faith  must  bring  conviction  of  its 
divine  origin  to  all  except  the  wilfully  blind 
and  perverse.  What  is  more  to  our  purpose : 
that  concurrence,  brought  prominently  be- 
fore our  people,  will  give  a  fuller  life  —  a 
more  stirring  energy  —  to  their  faith.  It 
will  make  them  realize,  as  they  may  have 


244         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

never  done  before,  the  magnificent,  world- 
wide communion,  nineteen  centuries  old,  to 
which  they  belong,  the  anxious  care  with 
which,  during  all  those  centuries,  the  deposit 
of  divine  revelation  was  guarded,  and  the 
sincerity,  the  earnestness,  the  learning,  the 
self-sacrifice,  and  frequently  the  martyrdom, 
with  which  the  ecclesia  docens  guarded  it. 

It  may,  perhaps,  be  objected  here  that  the 
early  councils  were  but  few  and  those  occu- 
pied with  one  doctrine  alone  —  the  Incar- 
nation. It  is  true,  that  down  to  the  end  of 
the  fifth  century  only  four  general  councils 
had  been  held ;  but  we  are  entitled  to  refer 
to  national  and  provincial  synods,  as  well 
as  to  those  that  are  ecumenical,  because  the 
former,  like  the  latter,  bear  legitimate  wit- 
ness to  the  faith  then  held,  and,  besides, 
they  had  the  tacit  approbation  of  the  uni- 
versal Church.  Down  to  the  middle  of  the 
third  century,  comparatively  few  of  those 
particular  councils  were  held  on  account  of 
the  violent  persecutions  to  which  Christians 
were  subjected.  But  afterwards,  they  were 
celebrated  at  brief  intervals  in  one  or  other 
part  of  the  Church.  Numerous  doctrinal 
and  moral  errors  were  condemned  in  those 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric,         245 

councils,  that  have  again  cropped  up  in  our 
day ;  and  surely  a  preacher,  explaining  the 
revealed  truths  opposed  to  them,  will  see 
and  use  the  decided  advantage  that  history 
thus  gives  him  of  pointing  out  the  con- 
sistency and  antiquity  of  the  Churches 
teaching  and  the  unflinching  firmness  of  her 
attitude  against  error.     Semper  eadem. 


CHAPTER  XV. 
Application. 

Exposition,  which  we  have  been  treating 
in  the  last  four  chapters,  has  for  its  direct 
and  immediate  object  the  enlightenment  of 
the  hearer's  understanding.  But  the  word 
of  Grod  is  infinitely  more  than  intellectual 
enlightenment ;  it  is  a  seed,  full  of  life  and 
power,  and  capable  of  producing  fruit  a 
hundredfold  when  planted  in  the  soul  under 
favorable  circumstances.  The  first  of  these 
circumstances  is  exposition  j  the  second  ap- 
plication, or  the  presentation  of  the  truth 
expounded  to  the  individual  conscience. 

^^Does  this  truth  affect  me  personally? 
Does  it  make  any  demand  on  me  beyond 
my  acceptance  of  it  as  a  revelation?  Can  I 
consistently  hold  it  and  continue  my  present 
mode  of  life?  If  not,  what  am  I  bound  to 
do?  what  obstacles  are  in  the  way?  what 
means  have  I  within  my  reach  that  will  en- 
able me  to  carry  out  the  obligations  it  may 
(246) 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric,         247 

impose  on  meV^  —  These  questions  will 
arise  confusedly  during  the  exposition  in 
every  earnest  conscience,  disturbing  its 
peace  until  they  find  a  satisfactory  solution. 
To  give  this  is  the  object  of  Application. 

There  are,  indeed,  some  speculative 
truths  of  revelation  the  exposition  of  which 
usually  touch  the  conscience  lightly  or  not 
at  all.  Does  this  arise  through  the  fault 
of  the  preacher,  or  from  the  nature  of  the 
theme,  or  because  the  hearer  is  not  properly 
disposed?  Glenerally,  I  think,  the  preacher 
is  to  blame.  The  object  he  places  before 
him  in  preparing  his  sermon  is  not  some 
definite  spiritual  good  of  his  hearer;  he 
sows  dead  formulas  where  he  should  plant 
living  seed;  his  words  may  be  luminous, 
but  they  are  devoid  of  heat,  of  suggestive- 
ness,  of  inspiration.  They  are  not  the 
words  of  those  men  by  whom  salvation  was 
brought  to  Israel.  Yet  it  is  not  harder  to 
pursue  and  attain  a  definite  object  in  a 
doctrinal  than  in  a  moral  sermon.  Earnest- 
ness, a  spiritual  conception  of  our  subject, 
and  a  determination  to  impress  a  similar 
conception  on  our  hearers,  —  these  are  re- 
quirements of  every  preacher,  and  they  put 


248         Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric, 

the  hearer  in  such  a  spiritual  frame  of  mind 
that  a  moral  application  seems  to  grow  as 
naturally  out  of  a  doctrinal  theme  as  fruit 
grows  on  a  tree. 

Example.  In  a  purely  doctrinal  dis- 
course on  the  Fitness  of  the  Glories  of 
Mary,  Cardinal  Newman  makes  the  follow- 
ing application : 

^^And  now,  my  dear  brethren,  what  is 
befitting  in  us,  if  all  that  I  have  been  telling 
you  is  befitting  in  Mary*?  If  the  Mother  of 
Emmanuel  ought  to  be  the  first  of  creatures 
in  sanctity  and  in  beauty ;  if  it  became  her 
to  be  free  from  all  sin  from  the  very  first, 
and  from  the  moment  she  received  her  first 
grace  to  begin  to  merit  more ;  and  if  such 
as  was  her  beginning,  such  was  her  end, 
her  conception  immaculate  and  her  death 
an  assumption;  if  she  died,  but  revived, 
and  is  exalted  on  high ;  what  is  befitting  in 
the  children  of  such  a  Mother,  but  an  imita- 
tion, in  their  measure,  of  her  devotion,  her 
meekness,  her  simplicity,  her  modesty,  and 
her  sweetness?  Her  glories  are  not  only 
for  the  sake  of  her  Son,  they  are  for  our 

sakes  also Above  all,  let  us  imitate 

her  purity,  who,  rather  than  relinquish  her 


Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric.         249 

virginity,  was  willing  to  lose  Him  for  a 
Son.'^ 

NoTK.  Many  preachers  make  no  moral  application 
toward  the  end  of  a  doctrinal  sermon.  Their  whole 
aim  seems  to  be  concentrated  in  producing  a  deep 
spiritual  impression  of  the  doctrine.  This  is  their  de- 
finite object,  in  which  the  moral  inference  is  held  in 
solution,  to  be  drawn  with  the  help  of  divine  grace  by 
the  hearer  himself.  There  may  be  some  earnest, 
thoughtful  members  in  every  congregation  who  will  do 
this ;  nay  more,  some  entire  congregations  may  in  rare 
cases  be  trusted  to  do  it ;  but,  as  a  rule,  the  preacher 
should  himself  make  the  application.  It  is  particularly 
necessary  that  he  should  do  so  when  he  speaks  to 
children  and  young  people  generally,  because  they  are 
not  likely  to  work  out,  perhaps  not  even  capable  of 
working  out,  practical  conclusions  by  themselves. 

The  Application  usually  reveals  the  de- 
finite object  of  the  sermon,  telling  (1)  what 
is  to  be  done,  and  (2)  how  to  do  it. 

1.  What  is  to  he  done  f  At  this  point  of 
his  sermon  the  preacher  must  be  above  all 
things  practical.  He  must  look  with  keen 
vision  into  the  consciences  of  his  hearers, 
and  examine  their  secret  workings ;  he  must 
discover  the  obstacles  that,  consciously  or 
unconsciously,  block  the  line  of  conduct  he 
points  out ;  and  he  must  not  move  a  single 
step  forward  until  these  are  effectually  re- 
moved.    Sometimes,  in  moral  sermons,  the 


250         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

removal  of  those  obstacles  by  earnest  per- 
suasive reasoning  ought  to  be  made  one  of 
the  main  divisions,  because  as  long  as  the 
will  is  held  in  check  by  some  secret  motive 
or  passion,  the  most  thrilling,  soul-stirring 
eloquence  will  have  no  influence  over  it. 
A  bar  of  iron  between  the  wheels  stops  a 
machine,  no  matter  what  force  of  steam 
you  apply ;  a  bad  habit,  a  pet  theory,  or  an 
ingrained  prejudice  clogs  the  will  somewhat 
in  a  similar  way. 

2.  How  to  carry  out  the  resolution?  The 
practical  manner  of  carrying  out  the  reso- 
lution which  forms  the  definite  object  of  the 
sermon  is  next  explained.  Here  two  ex- 
tremes are  to  be  avoided  —  vagueness  and 
minuteness ;  yet  it  is  safer  to  verge  toward 
the  latter  than  the  former.  A  vague  ex- 
planation is  like  a  pointless  arrow ;  it  strikes 
but  does  not  penetrate.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  a  resolution  be  too  minutely  developed,  it 
will  produce  the  effect  of  an  anti-climax, 
suggesting  the  fable  of  the  Mountain  in 
labor.  A  distinct  office  of  any  virtue  may 
be  made  the  object  of  a  resolution,  and  the 
ordinary  mode  of  executing  that  office  ought 
to    be    fully  described;   but   singular  and 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.         251 

perplexing  contingencies,  in  which  the  ob- 
ligation of  the  virtue  may  be  questionable, 
should  not  be  discussed.  What  are  called 
^^cases  of  conscience'^  are  altogether  out  of 
place  in  the  pulpit. 

It  is  unwise  to  urge  more  than  one  reso- 
lution in  a  sermon.  The  exposition  may, 
indeed,  lead  up  to  several  practical  con- 
clusions; but  if  all  of  them  be  proposed,  the 
attention  of  the  audience  is  divided  and  the 
more  they  are,  the  less  intense  is  the  con- 
sideration given  to  each.  This  is  obviously 
true  when  the  resolutions  arise  from  dis- 
similar virtues  or  obligations;  but  it  is 
equally  true,  when  the  practices  enjoined 
belong  all  to  one  general  principle  of  con- 
duct. All  the  observances  enjoined  by 
fraternal  charity,  for  instance,  should  not 
be  urged  in  one  sermon.  They  should,  of 
course,  be  enumerated  and,  it  may  be,  ex- 
plained, but  only  one  can  be  effectually  en- 
forced. 

Every  obligation  has  a  positive  side — 
something  to  be  done,  and  a  negative  side 
—  something  to  be  omitted.  Each  of  these 
sides  must  be  carefully  explained,  as  it  is 
the  complement  of  the  other.      Whether 


252         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

both  may  be  embodied  in  one  resolution, 
depends  on  the  nature  of  the  duty.  Hearing 
Mass  on  Sundays  and  abstaining  from 
servile  works  ought  to  be  enforced  in 
distinct  sermons;  while  the  prohibition  of 
theft  and  the  positive  obligation  of  resti- 
tution may  be  combined  in  one. 

Young  preachers  in  their  excessive  zeal 
sometimes  propose  the  higher  grades  of 
the  virtues  for  general  practice.  They  think 
that  what  St.  Thomas  calls  the  political,  or 
civil,  virtues  are  beneath  the  standard  of 
ordinary  Christian  life ;  hence  they  endeavor 
to  raise  the  aspirations  of  their  audience  to 
the  higher  level  of  the  '  ^purgatorious 
virtues''  (virtutes  purgatoriae)  or  even  to 
the  still  more  elevated  plane  where  the 
^ ^virtues  of  the  mind  purified''  are  practised. 
These  higher  stages  of  the  spiritual  life  are 
reached  by  very  few  in  a  congregation.  It 
is,  therefore,  useless  and  perhaps  imprudent 
(in  sermons)  to  urge  people  to  a  course 
which  they  are  not  inclined  to  follow,  which 
they  are  not  bound  to  follow,  and  which, 
bound  or  not,  they  are  sure  not  to  follow. 
It  is  much  more  practical  to  propose  and 
urge  the  ordinary  exercise  of  the  theological 


Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric.         253 

and  cardinal  virtues  —  I  mean  such  exercise 
of  them  as  may  be  reasonably  expected 
from  one  who  takes  a  serious  interest  in 
what  pertains  to  his  salvation,  but  who, 
notwithstanding,  is  not  easily  moved  from 
settled  personal  and  social  habits.  The 
virtues  practised  in  this  way  are  called  by 
St.  Thomas  political,  or  civil,  not  to  dis- 
tinguish them  from  Christian  virtues,  but  to 
denote  that  they  are  required  in  every  good 
citizen  (poUticus,  or  civis).  Indeed,  com- 
mentators of  St.  Thomas  require  for  the 
exercise  of  the  ^ Apolitical  virtues''  a  degree 
of  perfection  which  the  bulk  of  our  people 
rarely  attain. 

Every  one  knows  that  a  moral  resolution 
cannot  be  practised  in  a  meritorious  manner 
without  grace,  and  that  grace  can  be  ob- 
tained regularly  only  by  certain  religious 
acts,  chiefly  prayer  and  the  Sacraments  of 
Penance  and  the  Eucharist.  Hence  these 
means  must  be  made  as  familiar  to  our 
people  as  the  clothes  they  wear  or  the  food 
they  eat.  The  nature  and  use  and  power 
of  prayer  must,  indeed,  be  so  brought  home 
to  them,  that  it  will  be  a  first  principle  of 
life  and  conduct,  a  practical  guiding  axiom, 


254         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

a  habit,  an  instinct,  a  reality  as  unquestion- 
able as  the  air  they  breathe  or  the  ground 
they  walk  on.  When  a  priest  has  once 
achieved  this  result,  he  need  have  little  anx- 
iety about  the  efficiency  of  his  exhortation. 
The  habit  of  prayer  makes  the  springs  of 
emotion  and  action  so  sensitive  in  the  soul, 
that  they  respond  to  the  simplest  words  of 
admonition.  No  matter  how  deeply  an 
audience  be  impressed  by  a  sermon,  the  im- 
pression will  soon  wear  off  unless  it  be 
guarded  by  prayer.  When  Massillon 
preached  at  St.  Eustache  that  famous  sermon 
of  his  on  the  Fewness  of  the  Elect,  and 
made  the  entire  audience  spring  to  their 
feet,  ^^as  if  looking  for  the  archangel  to 
sound  his  trumpet, '^  the  terror  created  was 
no  doubt  salutary,  but  was  it  operative? 
did  it  lead  to  conversion  of  heart?  In- 
fidelity, whether  masked  or  barefaced,  does 
not  pray,  so  Massillon' s  eloquence  did  not 
stay  the  progress  of  French  corruption  or 
delay  the  advent  of  the  French  Revolution. 
Prayer  for  grace  to  keep  a  resolution  can 
scarcely  be  sincere  or  even  serious,  if  he 
who  asks  for  help  does  nothing  to  help  him- 
self.   ^^Qui  nos  creavit,''  says  St.  Augustine, 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric,         255 

^^sine  nobis,  non  nos  justificat  sine  nobis; 
creavit  nescientem,  justificat  volentem.'' 
(De  Verb.  Apost.  serm.  15,  C.  ii.)  This 
elementary  truth,  familiar  as  it  is  to  us  all, 
is  not  studied  as  it  ought  to  be  in  its  far- 
reaching  applications.  There  are  especially 
two  deductions  from  it  which  are  intimately 
connected  with  the  practical  result  of  a 
sermon.  These  are:  first,  the  necessity  of 
avoiding  or  putting  away  from  us  every- 
thing that  would  lead  us  to  break  our  reso- 
lution f  and,  secondly,  the  necessity  of  culti- 
vating, developing  and  strengthening  the 
will  in  its  natural  operations,  so  that  its  co- 
operation with  grace  may  be  more  assured 
and  uniform.  The  first  of4hese  obligations 
has  to  be  explained  frequently  to  the  people, 
as  a  necessary  means  of  keeping  the  reso- 
lution we  propose,  particularly  when  that 
resolution  has  for  its  object  the  avoidance  of 
certain  vicious  practices.  The  second  may 
appear  strange  and  perhaps  irrelevant  to 
many;  but  I  am  convinced  that,  if  it  were 
explained  and  enforced  more  generally  than 
it  is,  there  would  be  less  backsliding  from 
good  intentions  and  resolutions.  A  few 
words  about  each  will  be  of  service  to  the 
young  preacher. 


256         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

a)  The  obligation  of  avoiding  the  oc- 
casions of  sin.  This  obligation  must  be  ex- 
plained and  urged  when  we  speak  of  vicious 
practices,  that  is,  of  sinful  actions  to  which 
we  are  inclined  by  nature  or  habit  or  sur- 
roundings. The  prohibition  of  anything 
unlawful  always  includes  the  prohibition 
of  whatever  would  naturally  and  usually 
lead  to  it.  The  Sixth  Commandment,  for 
instance,  forbids  not  only  adultery  and 
fornication,  but  all  thoughts  and  words  as 
well  as  actions  that  would  vehemently  incite 
the  will  to  them. 

Occasions  of  sin  are  external  objects  or 
circumstances  calculated  to  draw  the  soul 
into  temptation.  If  the  temptation  arising 
from  the  object  or  circumstance  be  yielded 
to  generally  (or,  according  to  some,  even 
frequently),  the  occasion  is  called  proxi- 
mate; otherwise,  it  is  called  remote.  The 
proximate  occasion  is  voluntary,  if  it  can  be 
easily  avoided;  necessary,  if  it  cannot  be 
avoided  without  serious  inconvenience. 
The  former  must  be  always  put  away  un- 
der pain  of  sin ;  the  latter  not  so,  because 
the  person  exposed  to  such  occasion  may 
make  it  remote  by  prayer  and  the  Sacra- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         257 

ments,  cooperating  with  prudent  vigilance 
and  a  resolute  will. 

Hence,  preachers  are  not  justified  in 
telling  their  people  that  every  proximate 
occasion  of  sin  is  to  be  avoided  or  put  away : 
first,  because  such  a  statement,  without  dis- 
tinction or  qualification,  is  not  true;  and 
secondly,  because  it  is  calculated  to  form  a 
false  conscience  and  lead  to  formal  sin. 
Yet,  there  is  much  danger  of  self-deception 
when  we  come  to  determine  whether  or  not 
any  particular  inconvenience  makes  an  oc- 
casion of  sin  necessary.  He  who  is  exposed 
to  it  cannot  decide  the  question  for  himself, 
and  it  cannot  be  decided  for  him  in  the 
pulpit;  hence,  the  only  course  to  recom- 
mend is  to  consult  his  pastor  or  confessor 
and  abide  by  his  judgment. 

Sins  of  appetite  form  an  important  part 
of  the  subject-matter  of  preaching.  Now, 
we  know  from  experience  that  we  are  most 
violently  tempted  to  those  sins  when  some 
external  object  suggests  the  animal  pleasure 
of  committing  them.  We  are  obliged,  there- 
fore, when  the  danger  of  yielding  is  im- 
minent and  voluntary,  to  shun  such  object 
or  put  it  away  from  us ;  and,  indeed,  when 


258         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

we  can  do  so  without  serious  inconvenience, 
no  spiritual  remedies  will  avail  us  as  long  as 
we  remain  in  contact  with  it.  I  am  pro- 
foundly convinced,  then,  that  no  resolution 
against  carnal  vices  will  be  of  any  permanent 
use,  unless  it  be  backed  up  with  another  re- 
solution against  the  proximate  occasions  of 
breaking  it.  These  details  are  intimately 
connected  with  the  attainment  of  the  de- 
finite object  of  a  sermon;  and  a  zealous 
priest  will  not  neglect  them  on  account  of 
the  little  oratorical  display  possible  in  giving 
them. 

b)  The  necessity  of  cultivating  natural 
will-power.  The  Catholic  doctrine  of  grace 
in  relation  to  the  human  will  is  not  always 
properly  understood  by  the  faithful;  and 
the  misunderstanding  of  it  sometimes  pre- 
vents good  resolutions  from  being  kept, 
particularly  under  stress  of  violent  temp- 
tation. There  are  people  who  expect  grace 
to  do  every  thing  for  them,  even  to  supply 
the  essential  will-element  of  a  supernatural 
human  act.  Hence,  when  strongly  tempted, 
say  to  break  a  resolution  they  have  made, 
they  make  little  effort  to  resist  —  to  exercise 
their  free  will  in  combination  with  the  di- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric,         259 

vine  help  they  expect  —  but  they  throw  all 
the  burden  and  responsibility  of  overcoming 
the  temptation  on  Grod.  The  same  error 
manifests  itself  in  another  way.  Strength- 
ening  grace  is  not  always  needed  for  good 
works  toward  which  from  habit  or  tempera- 
ment we  feel  a  natural  or  acquired  inclin- 
ation. Yet  those  people  have  the  habit  of 
relying  on  supernatural  help  to  perform  the 
simplest,  easiest  moral  actions  as  well  as  to 
overcome  every  slight  temptation  that  may 
occur  to  them.  In  truth,  they  seem  to  hold 
that  the  human  will  without  divine  help  is 
capable  of  nothing  but  sin.  They  make  the 
work  of  grace,  contrary  to  Catholic  teach- 
ing, an  operation,  not  a  cooperation  with  a 
living,  acting  agent  (the  will) ;  and  the  con- 
sequence is,  that  when  they  find  grace  not 
to  do  for  them  what  they  erroneously  ex- 
pect of  it,  their  faith  in  prayer  and  the 
Sacraments  is  weakened  and  they  are  often 
grievously  tempted  to  give  up  religious  ob- 
servances altogether. 

Whilst  we  teach,  then,  the  necessity  of 
illuminating  and  inspiring  grace  for  every 
salutary  and  supernatural  act  we  do.,  we 
should  at  the  same  time  teach  the  necessity 


260         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

of  exercising  the  will  as  an  essential  con- 
dition of  the  action  of  concomitant  grace. 

But  there  is  another  prevalent  error  re- 
garding the  will  to  which  I  would  call  at- 
tention here.  Not  only  within,  but  outside, 
the  sphere  of  supernatural  actions,  man  has 
the  power  to  choose  between  opposite  or 
diverse  courses.  Some  choose  from  the  im- 
pulse of  the  moment ;  some,  from  feeling  or 
passion,  against  their  better  judgment. 
They  think  there  is  no  harm  in  doing  so,  as 
there  is  no  question  of  sin ;  but  they  do  not 
consider  that  they  lessen  their  available 
will-power  to  cooperate  with  grace  in  resist- 
ing temptation,  by  the  habit  they  indulge 
of  acting  against,  or  without,  the  guidance 
of  reason.  And  yet,  when  tempted,  they 
expect  divine  help  to  supply  the  weakness 
of  will  caused  by  that  habit  and  persevered 
in  without  any  thought  of  correction. 

Another  form  of  this  error  is  habitual  ex- 
cess in  the  venial  indulgence  of  the  appe- 
tites. Experience  shows  that  mortal  sin  is 
the  ordinary  result  of  such  excess,  not,  I 
am  convinced,  from  the  want  of  grace,  but 
from  the  false  presumption  that  grace  will 
do  for  us  what  we  are  unwilling  to  do  for 


Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric,         261 

ourselves  — -  give  us  back  in  the  hour  of 
need  the  will-power  which  we  deliberately 
throw  away. 

A  zealous  preacher  will  realize  the  impor- 
tance of  guarding  his  audience  against  these 
two  obstacles  to  the  efficient  enforcement  of 
the  definite  object  of  his  sermon.  He  will 
use  all  possible  energy  in  cautioning  them 
against  voluntary  proximate  occasions  of 
sin,  and  in  teaching  them  that  it  is  only  the 
will  in  action,  that  is,  struggling  with  all  its 
might  against  temptation,  which  is  effi- 
caciously helped  by  grace  to  victory. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Persuasion. 

There  is  a  fundamental  truth  contained 
in  the  saying:  ^'That  only  which  we  love, 
we  know.^*  Knowledge,  then,  of  a  divine 
truth  is  not  perfect  unless  we  love  it  and 
seek  to  incorporate  it  in  our  lives.  Hence, 
Exposition  in  its  broadest  sense  includes  not 
only  the  fullest  intellectual  knowledge  of 
what  we  preach  about,  but  also  the  motives 
for  making  that  knowledge  practical  and 
operative.  Persuasion  is  the  art  of  choosing 
those  motives  wisely  and  using  them  ef- 
fectively. It  is  easy  to  move  the  will  on- 
wards or  downwards  in  the  direction  of  its 
natural  inclinations.  But  to  move  it  up- 
wards to  the  supernatural  is  beyond  all 
human  faculty  or  art,  —  this  can  be  done 
by  grace  alone.  However,  as  our  divine 
Lord  has  ordained  that  by  preaching  the 
world  is  to  be  brought  into  the  Church,  we 
(262) 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric,         263 

must  believe  that  He  intended  by  the 
ministry  of  preaching  to  convey  those  actual 
graces  to  men  which  would  lead  to  their 
sanctification  and  salvation.  He  did  not 
make  it  a  channel  of  habitual  or  sanctifying 
grace,  and  hence  it  is  not  a  Sacrament ;  but 
it  is  a  Sacramental,  in  as  much  as  it  ef- 
fectively symbolizes  the  actual  supernatural 
helps  which  are  conferred  through  it  on  the 
well-disposed. 

Now,  it  is  a  well-known  principle  in  theo- 
logy that  if  the  symbolic  action  instituted 
by  Christ  to  give  grace  be  not  performed  — 
if  any  substantial  part  of  it  be  omitted  — 
the  grace  is  not  given.  We  may  reasonably 
infer,  then,  that  there  is  at  least  great 
danger  of  our  sermons  bearing  no  spiritual 
fruit,  if  they  be  wanting  in  the  essential  ele- 
ment of  persuasion.  They  seem  to  be  no 
more  the  divinely  appointed  channels  of 
actual  graces  to  our  hearers,  than  wine  used 
in  Baptism  would  be  the  divinely  appointed 
channel  of  spiritual  regeneration. 

The  object  of  Persuasion  (in  preaching) 
is  the  absolute  determination  of  the  will  to 
do  something  conducive  to  salvation.  To 
excite  a  merely  sentimental  yearning  to  pos- 


264         Manual  of  Sacred  Khetoric, 

sess  some  virtue  or  get  rid  of  some  vice  is 
not  enough ;  because  such  yearning  implies 
conscious  or  unconscious  tampering  with 
grace  —  unwillingness  to  do  what  God  re- 
quires of  us.  Most  of  the  barrenness  of 
preaching  comes  from  our  not  keeping 
definitely  and  prominently  before  us  this 
object  of  Persuasion.  We  are  satisfied  if 
we  expound  divine  truth  in  simple  popular 
language,  and  we  are  elated  if  we  succeed 
in  moving  our  audience  to  tears ;  yet  neither 
exposition  nor  tear-shedding  is  the  end  of  a 
sermon. 

Persuasion  requires  certain  qualities  in  a 
preacher,  without  which  his  most  impas- 
sioned words  will  not  produce  their  full 
effect  on  an  audience.  First  of  all,  he  must 
have  a  character  for  trustworthiness  as  a 
spiritual  guide  to  his  people.  He  must, 
therefore,  be  sincere  and  earnest,  and  his 
life  must  be  consistent  with  his  teaching. 
It  may  be  thought  that  no  priest  having  the 
care  of  souls  could  be  found  deficient  in 
trustworthiness.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  as 
far  as  regards  the  celebration  of  Mass  and 
the  administration  of  the  Sacraments  every 
priest  in  good  standing  is  trusted.     It  is 


Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric,         265 

true  also  that  no  one  denies  such  a  one  the 
negative  goodness  of  respectability  and 
moral  cleanliness  of  life.  But  something 
more  than  this  is  required  when  he  would 
persuade  his  people  from  the  pulpit  to  a 
true  conversion  of  heart,  —  a  conversion 
implying  the  sacrifice  of  many  cherished  in- 
clinations. There  must  be  positive  good- 
ness —  faith,  earnestness,  zeal,  piety, 
charity  to  the  poor  —  in  a  word,  he  must 
live  up  to  what  he  teaches.  Men  of  the 
world  apply  their  business  principles  to  the 
affair  of  their  salvation.  If  some  one  ad- 
vise them  to  invest  their  money  in  a  certain 
concern,  they  naturally  inquire  how  much 
he  himself  has  invested  in  it;  and  if  they 
find  that  he  has  all  his  money  invested  else- 
where, they  feel  a  reasonable  distrust  in  his 
sincerity,  and  his  advice  goes  for  nought. 

Note.  Professor  Mahaffy  in  his  Essay  on  the  Decay 
of  Modern  Preaching  holds  that  a  preacher,  merely  as 
such,  and  considered  just  as  he  is  in  his  pulpit,  need 
not  be  a  good  man.  **It  is  not  necessary,"  he  writes, 
"that  he  should  possess  personal  piety,  or  presuppose 
it  in  himself.  He  may  give  great  expositions  of  dogma ; 
he  may  give  splendid  exhortations  to  a  holy  life  ;  and, 
provided  he  be  really  in  earnest,  —  provided  his  en- 
thusiasm be  not  fictitious,  or  his  earnestness  assumed, 
—  he  may  be  a  great  champion  of  his  faith.    For  he 


266         Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric. 

may  feel  all  the  value  of  goodness,  lie  may  sincerely 
believe  in  the  truth  and  value  of  his  creed,  ard  yet  he 
may  not  have  attained  that  inner  calm  of  the  soul,  that 
closer  walk  with  God,  which  is  the  privilege  of  the 
very  few  among  men." 

It  may  be  readily  granted  that  any 
preacher  endowed  with  dramatic  talent  can 
give  eloquent  expression  to  truths  and  senti- 
ments which  have  no  influence  on  his  own 
life.  But  his  eloquence  will  have  no  prac- 
tical effect  on  his  hearers  unless  they  either 
presume  or  know  him  to  be  a  good  man  in 
whose  private  life  the  truths  he  teaches  are 
embodied.  Hence  a  resident  pastor,  no 
matter  how  eloquent,  is  sadly  deceived  if  he 
expects  his  people  to  abstract  from  his 
private  character  when  he  stands  in  his  pul- 
pit and  announces  the  law  to  them. 

There  can  be  no  persuasion  without 
unction.  This  is  defined  to  be,  ^^that  fervor 
and  tenderness  of  address  which  excites 
piety  and  devotion.''  It  is  a  quality  com- 
municated to  preaching  by  the  whole-souled 
earnestness  and  zeal  of  the  preacher.  It 
cannot  be  counterfeited,  nor  can  it  be 
acquired  by  art ;  indeed,  it  can  scarcely  be 
analyzed,  for,  although  it  is  conveyed 
through  language  and  deliverv,  yet  these 


Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric.         267 

cannot  produce  it,  as,  even  at  th3ir  best, 
they  often  leave  the  heart  cold  and  un- 
moved. Perhaps  it  is  best  described  in  its 
effect  by  the  two  disciples  going  to  Emmaus, 
who,  after  our  divine  Lord  had  expounded 
to  them  in  all  the  Scriptures  the  things  that 
were  concerning  Him  and  had  vanished  out 
of  their  sight,  said  one  to  the  other:  ^^Was 
not  our  heart  burning  within  us,  whilst  He 
spoke  in  the  way  and  opened  to  us  the 
Scriptures!'^ 

It  is  unction  chiefly  that  makes  the  ex- 
position of  doctrine  and  moral  duty  interest- 
ing and  palatable  to  an  audience.  Earnest- 
ness begets  earnestness;  words  springing 
from  a  heart  on  fire  burn  their  way  even  to 
hearts  of  ice.     Cor  ad  cor  loquitur. 

There  is  but  one  way  for  a  preacher  to 
acquire  unction,  and  that  is  to  be  honest 
with  himself  and  his  people,  to  mean  every 
word  he  says  to  them,  to  prescribe  no  rule 
for  them  with  which  he  does  not  regulate 
his  own  conduct. 

Note.  Few  things  in  preaching  are  so  contemptible 
as  simulated  unction.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  it 
has  contributed  more  than  any  other  cause  to  estrange 
men  from  religion.  Only  women  and  children  are  af- 
fected by  it.   Manliness  never  speaks  in  whining  tones, 


268         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

nor  does  it  "assume  a  sickly  smile  while  expressing  an 
artificial  love  of  God  or  of  our  erring  brethren." 

Another  condition  of  Persuasion  is,  that 
we  win  and  hold  the  goodwill  of  our  audi- 
ence. We  must,  indeed,  announce  to  them 
frequently  mysterious  or  unpalatable  truths 
without  mincing  or  minimizing ;  but  in  do- 
ing so  we  must  be  careful  not  to  arouse  the 
antagonism  of  prejudice  or  ignorance.  On 
the  contrary,  we  must  use  tact  and  delicacy 
and  gentleness  in  leading  up  to  the  truths 
by  copious  comparisons  and  illustrations, 
and  by  showing  their  reasonableness  as  well 
as  the  necessity  and  advantages  of  accepting 
them. 

This  condition  requires  us  also  to  please 
the  eye  and  the  ear  of  our  audience.  The 
personal  appearance  of  a  preacher  has  an 
important  bearing  on  the  success  of  his 
efforts  to  persuade.  So,  too,  a  harsh  voice, 
a  false  pitch,  defective  modulation,  ungrace- 
ful gestures  —  everything,  in  a  word,  con- 
trary to  taste  and  propriety  will  tell  against 
him  and  lessen  the  effect  of  his  pleading. 

To  move  the  will  from  a  state  of  apathy 
or  antagonism  to  a  state  of  activity  in  a  par- 
ticular direction,  certain  influences  must  be 


Manual  oj  Sacred  Rhetoric,         269 

brought  to  bear  on  it.  Those  influences  are 
called  motives ;  and  they  act  on  the  will  in 
two  ways,  directly  and  indirectly.  They 
act  directly,  when  they  bring  before  the 
rational  will  those  properties  or  relations  of 
an  object  or  truth  that  make  it  appear  good, 
beautiful,  useful,  or  attractive,  or  else,  bad, 
ugly,  hurtful,  or  repulsive.  They  act  in- 
directly, when  they  excite  the  feelings,  or 
passions,  and  thereby  influence  the  will. 
These  two  forms  of  Persuasion  were  recog- 
nized by  Grreek  rhetoricians  who  gave  to  the 
former  the  name  i)^^,  to  the  latter,  iradri, 
Both  are  thus  described  by  Cicero  (Or.  37) : 
Duo  sunt  quae  bene  tr aetata  ah  orator e,  ad- 
mirahilem  eloquentiam  faciant;  quorum  alte- 
rum  est,  quod  Graeei  ethikon  vocant,  ad  no- 
turas  et  ad  mores ,  et  ad  omnem  vitae  consue- 
tudinem  aecommo datum ;  alterum,  quod  iidem 
patJietikon  nominant^  quo  perturhantur  animi^ 
et  concitantur,  in  quo  uno  regnat  oratio.  llliid 
superius  come,  jucundum,  ad  henevolentiam 
conciliandam  paratum;  hoc  vehemens,  incen- 
sum,  incitatumy  quo  causae  eripiuntur;  quod 
cum  rapide  fertur^  sustineri  nullo  pacto  potest. 
These  two  forms  of  Persuasion  may  be 
called  the  rational  and  the  emotional.     The 


270         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric. 

latter  rouses,  inspires,  elevates ;  but  its  effect 
is  transitory ;  the  former  reasons  earnestly, 
but  without  show  of  passion  or  excitement, 
about  the  practical  course  which  the  will 
should  adopt  in  regard  to  the  definite  object 
of  the  sermon.  Its  strength  is  in  the  calm- 
ness and  persuasive  reasonableness  of  its 
pleading.  Its  attitude  is  that  of  a  trusted 
friend,  not  of  a  dictator  or  of  a  self-inter- 
ested advocate.  Its  influence,  therefore, 
generally  tells  on  the  will,  while  the  in- 
fluence of  emotional  appeal  very  often  sub- 
sides and  evaporates 

Some  preachers  are  drawn  by  the  natural 
constitution  of  their  minds  to  one  of  these 
forms  of  Persuasion,  others  to  the  other. 
The  ideal  preacher,  however,  will  combine 
both  forms  in  his  sermons,  at  the  same  time 
giving  the  preponderance  to  that  form 
toward  which  lies  his  peculiar  bent. 

Note.  Rational  appeal,  as  it  becomes  more  and 
more  earnest,  grows  naturally  into  the  emotional  form, 
somewhat  as  an  act  of  divine  love  from  being  a  purely 
spiritual  conception  may  from  its  intensity  and  energy 
overflow  into  the  feelings  and  senses,  even  filling  the 
eyes  with  tears.  —  No  preacher  will  be  so  unwise  as  to 
make  his  sermon  to  consist  wholly  of  emotional  ap- 
peals. Yet  there  are  occasions  when  a  short  impas- 
sioned address,  known  in  Italy  as  a  feveritw,  may  be 


Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric,         271 

made  with  much  spiritual  profit.  The  morning  of  a 
First  Communion,  the  Forty  Hours'  Adoration,  Good 
Friday,  Corpus  Christi,  are  instances  of  such  occasions. 

Persuasion  moves  the  will  in  one  or  the 
other  of  two  opposite  directions,  either  to- 
ward an  object  or  truth  as  good,  agreeable, 
desirable,  or  away  from  it  as  bad,  un- 
pleasant, hurtful.  These  two  movements 
are  produced  by  two  mutually  opposite 
classes  of  motives :  those  of  attraction  and 
those  of  repulsion.  The  former  include 
love,  joy,  happiness,  peace  of  mind,  self- 
interest,  duty,  hope,  desire,  beauty  and  at- 
tractiveness, goodwill  and  esteem  of  others, 
good  example,  courage,  gratitude,  pity. 
The  latter  are  the  antonyms  of  these  — 
hatred,  misery,  sorrow,  remorse,  etc. 

It  is  not  the  number  of  motives  as  much 
as  the  earnestness  with  which  they  are 
urged  that  tells  in  a  sermon.  Moreover,  no 
motive  should  be  used  that  is  not  naturally 
and  obviously  suggested  in  the  exposition 
of  our  theme.  Even  among  these  there 
should  be  one  primary,  dominant  motive 
more  insisted  on  and  developed  than  the 
rest,  as  that  which  will  have  most  influence 
on  the  hearer.     When  the  subject  of  a 


272         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

sermon  is  some  virtue,  motives  of  attraction 
should  be  chiefly  used ;  on  the  other  hand, 
motives  of  repulsion  are  the  most  appropri- 
ate and  telling,  when  we  would  turn  the 
will  from  vice  or  sin.  Still  it  is  often  ad- 
visable if  not  necessary  to  contrast  a  virtue 
with  the  opposite  vice;  in  which  case  the 
corresponding  motives  in  the  two  classes 
should  be  urged. 

Example.  *^0  my  friends,  what  a  bles- 
sing it  is  for  the  grown  man  in  after  life,  to 
be  able  to  look  back  to  the  days  of  his  early 
boyhood  and  say  of  the  old  man:  '^ —  his 
father — ^^  that  is  in  his  grave:  ^I  never 
heard  a  bad  word  from  him.  I  never  saw 
him  in  a  position  unworthy  of  a  man.  I 
never  heard  from  his  lips,  nor  saw  in  his 
life,  anything  that  could  teach  me  sin  or 
vice.  His  example,  by  which  my  character 
was  formed,  was  as  that  of  a  saint  of  Grod 
—  a  perfect  Christian.'  This  is  the  highest 
blessing,  perhaps,  Grod  can  give  to  a  man ; 
and  this  is  the  precious  blessing  that  the 
drunkard  denies  to  the  children  that  Grod 
gave  him  in  this  world.  How  do  they  grow 
up?  They  see  their  mother  pining  away  in 
^unwomanly  rags' ;  they  see  her  lack-lustre 


Manual  of  Sacred  Elietoric.         273 

eye;  they  see  the  evidence  of  gloomy  de- 
spair upon  her  wan,  emaciated  face.'' 

Father  Burke. 

Exhorting  an  audience  to  act  on  some 
motive,  is  not  persuasion.  They  know  as 
well  as  the  preacher  that  they  should  be  in- 
fluenced by  that  motive ;  but  knowledge  by 
itself  is  of  little  account  where  there  is 
question  of  determining  the  will  to  some 
definite  act.  To  be  effective,  the  miotive 
must  be  embodied  in  some  comparison, 
example,  parable,  or  experience.  To  say, 
for  instance:  ^^Give  up  sin;  turn  your 
hearts  to  Grod;  go  to  Confession;  begin  a 
new  life''  —  all  this  has  little  if  any  per- 
suasive force  in  it.  So,  too,  appeals  that 
have  become  stock  pulpit  expressions,  un- 
less they  are  recast,  will  scarcely  move  an 
audience  to  a  change  of  life. 

We  should  never  express  our  intention  to 
persuade,  as  by  doing  so  we  are  in  danger 
of  putting  our  hearers  into  an  attitude  of 
resistance.  Consciously  or  unconsciously, 
men  are  jealous  of  any  direct  interference 
with  their  free  will ;  and  they  stand  on  their 
guard  against  anyone  who  proposes  formally 
to  regulate  or  influence  their  future  conduct. 


274         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

Hence,  in  the  body  of  a  sermon,  the  more 
covertly  and  indirectly  motives  are  urged, 
the  more  effectively  they  will  do  their  work. 
Still  direct  appeals  are  sometimes  not  only 
allowable  but  necessary.  They  have  more 
effect  on  uncultured  than  on  cultured 
hearers,  and  they  are  always  in  place  toward 
the  end  of  a  sermon. 

When  comparison,  example,  etc.,  are 
used  for  the  purpose  of  persuasion  a  bare 
outline  is  not  sufficient,  but  copious  details 
should  be  given.  ^^In  a  description  of  any- 
thing,'' writes  Whately,  ^^that  is  likely  to 
act  on  the  feelings,  this  effect  will  by  no 
means  be  produced  as  soon  as  the  under- 
standing is  sufficiently  informed ;  detail  and 
expansion  are  here  not  only  admissible,  but 
absolutely  necessary,  in  order  that  the  mind 
may  have  leisure  and  opportunity  to  form 
vivid  and  distinct  ideas.  For,  as  Quintilian 
well  observes,  he  who  tells  us  that  a  city 
was  sacked,  although  that  one  word  implies 
all  that  occurred,  will  produce  little  if  any 
impression  on  the  feelings,  in  comparison 
of  one  who  sets  before  us  a  living  descrip- 
tion of  the  various  lamentable  circum- 
stances; to  tell  the  whole,  he  adds,  is  by  no 
means  the  same  as  to  tell  everything.'' 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric ,         275 

In  emotional  appeal,  there  are  two  me- 
thods by  which  the  preacher  may  rouse  the 
feelings  of  his  audience.  The  first  is  to  give 
the  fullest  possible  expression,  by  language 
and  delivery,  to  the  feeling  we  would  ex- 
cite; the  second,  to  let  our  words,  spoken 
calmly,  with  suppressed  emotion,  act  on  the 
audience,  without  any  aid  from  impassioned 
elocution  or  delivery, 

Whately  calls  these  the  exaggerating  and 
the  extenuating  methods,  —  names  which, 
for  want  of  better,  may  be  retained.  It  is 
safe  to  say,  that  the  method  of  exaggeration 
should  be  scarcely  ever  used  in  preaching 
except  as  the  culmination  of  the  method  of 
extenuation.  A  transition  from  calm  pas- 
sionless exposition  or  reasoning  to  the 
former  method  of  appeal  is  too  violent  to 
be  effective.  In  truth,  although  such 
appeal  is  popularly  considered  the  most 
brilliant  effect  of  oratory,  true  eloquence 
frequently  dispenses  with  it  as  hurtful 
rather  than  helpful  to  its  end,  namely, 
effective  persuasion. 

The  method  of  extenuation,  therefore,  is 
that  best  suited  to  preaching,  as  it  is  the 
most  accordant  with  the  mildness  of  the 


276         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric, 

G-ospel,  and  also  perhaps  with  the  dignity 
of  the  pulpit.  It  works  through  description 
or  narrative,  adding  detail  to  detail,  until 
the  feelings  of  the  audience  are  wrought  to 
a  high  pitch  of  excitement.  Frequently  the 
suppressed  passion  of  the  preacher  will  at 
this  point  throw  off  the  self-imposed  re- 
straint, and  convey  to  his  audience  the 
magnetism  of  his  own  excitement.  The 
eye  will  flash  or  swim  in  tears ;  the  voice 
will  ring  high  and  clear,  or  speak  in  trem- 
ulous, broken  accents;  the  blanched  cheek, 
the  twitching  lips,  the  clenched  hands,  the 
swaying  body  —  all  will  speak  passion  and 
enkindle  it.  Such  impassioned  outburst 
should  be,  as  I  have  said,  the  result  or 
climax  of  pent-up  feeling  struggling  for  ex- 
pression ;  —  it  should  neither  be  nor  appear 
to  be  strained  or  factitious.  The  preacher, 
too,  should  be  sure  that  he  has  carried  his 
hearers  with  him,  and  that  they  glow  with 
the  fire  that  burns  in  his  impassioned 
language  and  delivery. 

Examples.  1.  ^^Is  there  a  man  among 
you  who  has  the  hardihood  to  blaspheme 
the  eternal  and  almighty  God,  by  saying 
that  that  speechless,  senseless,  unreasoning. 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric,         277 

unloving,  lifeless  brute  there  is  the  image  of 
God?  Stand  over  him,  my  friends,  and 
look  at  him  as  he  lies  there.  Speak  to  him. 
You  might  as  well  speak  to  a  corpse.  He 
does  not  understand  you.  Eeason  with 
him.  You  might  as  well  reason  with  that 
table.  Ask  him  to  look  at  you.  There  is 
no  light  in  his  eyes  ....  Let  his  wife  come 
there  and  kneel  at  his  side;  he  does  not 
know  her ;  he  is  unable  to  speak  to  her  .  .  . 
May  I  ask  you,  is  he  a  man?  Why,  if  he 
were  a  man,  he  could  speak,  he  could  reason 
with  you,  he  could  see  you  and  know  you 
if  you  were  there.  How  can  you  call  this 
creature  a  man?  He  has  lost  the  power  of 
speech,  of  discerning,  ol  reasoning,  of 
loving,  of  moving.  No,  my  friends,  he  is 
only  the  remains  of  a  man ;  with  this  dif- 
ference between  him  and  a  corpse :  a  corpse 
is  killed  by  the  angel  of  God  commissioned 
to  do  God's  sentence;  but  this  man  has 
killed  himself,  by  calling  in  the  devil  to 
help  him  in  his  infamous  suicide. '' 

Father  Burke. 
2.    *^0  what  a  moment  for  the  poor  soul, 
when  it  comes  to  itself,  and  finds  itself  sud- 
denly before  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ! 


278         Manual  of  Sacred  BTietoric, 

O  what  a  moment,  when  breathless  with  the 
journey,  and  dizzy  with  the  brightness,  and 
overwhelmed  with  the  strangeness  of  what 
is  happening  to  him,  and  unable  to  realize 
where  he  is,  the  sinner  hears  the  voice  of 
the  accusing  spirit,  bringing  up  all  the  sins 
of  his  past  life,  which  he  has  forgotten,  or 
which  he  has  explained  away,  which  he 
would  not  allow  to  be  sins,  though  he 
suspected  they  were;  when  he  hears  him 
detailing  all  the  mercies  of  God  which  he 
has  despised,  all  His  warnings  which  he  has 
set  at  nought,  all  His  judgments  which  he 
has  outlived ;  when  that  evil  one  follows  out 
into  detail  the  growth  and  progress  of  a  lost 
soul,  —  how  it  expanded  and  was  confirmed 
in  sin,  —  how  it  budded  forth  into  leaves 
and  flowers,  grew  into  branches,  and 
ripened  into  fruit,  —  till  nothing  was  want- 
ing for  its  full  condemnation.  And,  O  still 
more  terrible,  still  more  distracting,  when 
the  Judge  speaks,  and  consigns  it  to  the 
jailors,  till  it  shall  pay  the  endless  debt 
which  lies  against  it.  ^Impossible!  I  a 
lost  soul!  I  separated  from  hope  and  from 
peace  for  ever!  It  is  not  I  of  whom  the 
Judge  so  spake.     There  is  a  mistake  some- 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric,         279 

where ;  Christ,  Saviour,  hold  Thy  hand,  — 
one  minute  to  explain  it.'  ...  .  O  mighty- 
God,  O  Grod  of  love,  it  is  too  much ;  it  broke 
the  heart  of  Thy  sweet  Son  Jesus  to  see  the 
misery  of  man  spread  out  before  His  eyes. 
He  died  by  it  as  well  as  for  it.  And  we, 
too,  in  our  measure,  our  eyes  ache,  and  our 
hearts  sicken,  and  our  heads  reel,  when  we 
but  feebly  contemplate  it.  O  most  tender 
heart  of  Jesus,  why  wilt  Thou  not  end, 
when  wilt  Thou  end  this  ever-growing  load 
of  sin  and  woef  Newman. 

The  ultimate  aim  of  Persuasion  should 
always  be  the  definite  object;  but  its  im- 
mediate and  direct  aim,  especially  in  the  ex- 
pository part  of  the  sermon,  is  frequently 
the  removal  of  prejudices  or  the  conciliation 
of  the  will  to  some  principle  of  which  the 
definite  object  is  a  particular  application. 

It  is  sometimes  asked,  in  what  part  of  a 
sermon  may  persuasion  be  most  fittingly  in- 
troduced. Some  answer,  at  the  end  of  each 
point,  or  division,  and  especially  in  the  con- 
clusion. These,  no  doubt,  are  the  places  in 
which  formal,  explicit  appeals  to  the  feel- 
ings are  made  with  most  propriety  and  ef- 
fect ;  but  it  would  be  a  grave  mistake  to  ex- 


280         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

elude  the  persuasive  element  from  any  part 
of  a  sermon.  From  the  introduction  to  the 
conclusion,  we  must  endeavor  to  gain  and 
hold  the  goodwill  of  the  audience,  to  inspire 
them  with  confidence  in  our  guidance,  to 
satisfy  them  that  loyal,  full-hearted  accep- 
tance of  our  teaching  is  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  highest  and  dearest  interests 
of  their  hves.  These  are  offices  of  persuasion 
quite  as  much  as  the  direct  appeals  to  the 
feelings  and  the  will  to  which  it  is  frequent- 
ly confined. 


CHAPTEE  XVII. 
Conclusion. 

When  tne  theme,  or  proposition,  of  a 
sermon  has  been  fully  expounded  by  de- 
finition, illustration,  and  historical  develop- 
ment, and  when  furthermore  the  definite 
object  has  been  (presumably)  attained  by 
persuasive  reasoning  and  direct  appeal  to 
the  feelings  and  the  will,  —  when  all 
this  has  been  satisfactorily  accomplished, 
nothing  more  remains  to  be  done  except  to 
bring  the  sermon  to  a  fitting  conclusion. 

For  a  doctrinal  sermon,  this  conclusion 
consists  simply  of  a  recapitulation  of  what 
has  been  said  and  an  animated  but  not  im- 
passioned application  of  it  for  the  guidance 
of  conduct.  It  scarcely  admits  of  being 
sharply  pointed  to  moral  details ;  but  it  can 
and  should  implant  suggestive,  stimulating, 
inspiring  thought  in  the  mind  and  heart,  — 
thought  which  in  Heaven's  good  time  will 
bear  fruit  in  the  conversion  of  the  sinner 
and  the  greater  sanctification  of  the  just. 
(281) 


282         Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric, 

The  conclusion  of  a  moral  sermon  has  to 
be  more  elaborate.  Its  purpose  is  to  make 
a  final  appeal  to  the  will  on  behalf  of  the 
definite  object;  which  appeal  must  be  the 
climax  of  the  sermon,  exceeding  all  previous 
appeals  in  its  impassion ateness  and  per- 
suasive power.  HiCj  si  usquam,  Cicero  ob- 
serves, totos  eloquentiae  fontes  aperire  licet. 

The  effective  work  of  the  sermon  is 
generally  done  before  we  reach  the  con- 
clusion. The  will  of  the  hearer,  under  the 
influence  of  grace,  has  already  determined 
to  yield  itself  to  our  guidance,  —  to  break 
off  that  bad  habit,  to  practise  that  virtue, 
to  use  that  means  of  salvation.  What,  then, 
is  the  use  of  the  conclusion?  Simply  to 
strengthen,  deepen,  and  make  permanent 
the  good  resolution  formed  by  the  hearer. 
In  photography,  there  is  a  process  known 
as  ^^the  fixing  of  the  picture,"  without 
which  the  first  exposure  of  the  impression 
to  sunlight  would  utterly  destroy  the  image. 
Now,  in  an  analogous  way,  the  conclusion 
^ 'fixes"  the  resolution  in  the  mind  of  the 
hearer  and  safeguards  it  agains  effacement. 

It  sometimes  happens,  however,  that  one 
who   has  remained  unmoved  through  the 


Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric,         283 

body  of  the  sermon  yields  at  length  to  the 
appeal  made  in  the  conclusion.  To  help 
such  a  one  out  of  his  wavering  between  sin 
and  grace,  we  should  keep  on  pleading  with 
the  audience  to  the  end  as  if  they  still  held 
out  against  us.  Every  word  of  ours  will 
tell  with  equal  force  on  those  already  per- 
suaded and  those  we  have  still  to  persuade. 
It  will  confirm  the  former  in  their  good  re- 
solution, and  it  will  do  all  that  human 
agency  can,  to  make  the  latter,  even  at  the 
last  moment,  compliant  to  the  promptings 
of  grace.  However  true  it  is,  then,  that  the 
actual  work  of  persuasion  is  generally  done 
before  we  reach  the  conclusion,  we  should 
still  plead  with  the  same  earnestness  as  if 
we  knew  that  we  had  yet  accomplished 
nothing. 

From  what  I  have  said  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  conclusion  consists  essentially  in  a  final, 
most  earnest  appeal  to  the  feelings  and  the 
will  of  the  audience  in  behalf  of  the  definite 
object  of  the  sermon.  This  appeal  ordinari- 
ly contains  four  elements;  namely,  recapi- 
tulation, practical  resolution  (definite  ob- 
ject), enforcement  by  motives,  and  prayer. 

NoTK.     It  is  not  advisable  to  make  a  formal   an- 
nouncement of  the  conclusion.     The    complete  and 


284         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric 

satisfactory  exposition  and  application  of  the  theme 
should  indicate  sufficiently  that  the  final  stage  is 
reached,  and  no  preacher  should  put  further  strain  on 
the  attention  of  his  audience.  Yet,  however  covertly 
made,  the  easy  natural  transition  from  the  body  of  a 
sermon  to  the  conclusion  requires  care  and  skill,  so  as 
not  to  suggest  distracting  trains  of  thought. 

1.  Eecapitulation.  This  is  an  abstract 
of  the  development  of  the  proposition.  In 
most  discourses  it  is  absolutely  necessary, 
as  it  gives  a  clear,  comprehensive  view  of 
the  entire  subject,  impresses  it  on  the 
memory,  and  serves  as  a  foundation  for  the 
crowning  appeal  to  be  made  in  the  con- 
clusion. 

Note.  Professor  Phelps,  in  his  Theory  of  Preaching, 
says:  "Not  all  discussions  admit  of  recapitulation. 
The  salient  points  of  a  discussion  may  be  so  simple 
and  so  few,  that  to  recapitulate  them  would  burden 
them  with  needless  form.  Recapitulate  a  hortatory 
sermon,  and  you  reduce  it  to  burlesque."  I  am  not 
at  all  convinced  of  the  truth  of  this  remark,  regard- 
ing hortatory  sermons.  These  consist  mainly  of 
several  motives  used  to  persuade  to  some  moral  pur- 
pose; and  I  fail  to  see  what  "burlesque"  there  is  in 
summing  up  all  those  motives  in  the  conclusion,  and 
thereby  bringing  their  united  pressure  to  bear  on  the 
will.  Si  per  singula  minus  moverat,  turba  valet. 
(Quintilian.) 

Brevity  is  the  chief  characteristic  of  re- 
capitulation. Nothing  cools  interest  in  a 
speaker's  words  more  effectually  thivU  the 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         285 

thought  that  he  is  about  to  give  in  sub- 
stance the  whole  sermon  over  again.  A 
few  pithy,  well  chosen  words  iare  enough 
to  give  the  main  ideas  of  the  discourse, 
and  these  may  be  conveyed  in  such  a  way 
that  the  audience  will  not  perceive  their 
object.  Of  course,  illustrations  and  texts 
would  be  here  out  of  place.  Toward  the 
end  of  a  sermon,  the  movement  should  be 
rapid;  hence,  it  is  sufficient,  after  repeat- 
ing the  proposition,  to  recapitulate  the 
divisions  and  the  motives  adduced  for  the 
attainment  of  the  definite  object. 

Example.  In  his  Discourse  on  the  Fit- 
ness of  the  Glories  of  Mary,  Cardinal  New- 
man recapitulates  indirectly  but  very  ef- 
fectively as  follows:  ^^And  now,  my  dear 
brethren,  what  is  befitting  in  us,  if  all  that 
I  have  been  telling  you  is  fitting  in  Mary? 
If  the  Mother  of  Emmanuel  ought  to  be 
the  first  of  creatures  in  sanctity  and  beauty ; 
if  it  became  her  to  be  free  from  all  sin 
from  the  very  first,  and  from  the  moment 
she  received  her  first  grace  to  begin  to 
merit  more;  and  if  such  as  was  her  be- 
ginning, such  was  her  end,  her  conception 
immaculate  and  her  death  an  assumption; 


286         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

if  she  died,  but  revived,  and  is  exalted  on 
high;  what  is  befitting  in  the  children  of 
such  a  Mother,  but  an  imitation,  in  their 
measure,  of  her  devotion,  her  meekness, 
her  simplicity,  her  modesty,  her  sweet- 
ness r' 

2.  The  practical  resolution,  or  definite 
object.  This  should  be  a  direct  and  evi- 
dent inference  from  the  recapitulation. 
Far-fetched  deductions,  no  matter  how 
practical,  will  have  little  effect,  because 
the  audience  will  not  see  the  connection 
between  them  and  the  body  of  the  sermon. 
Should  there  be  any  difficulties  in  carrying 
out  the  resolution,  the  means  of  removing 
them  ought  to  have  been  given  in  the 
body  of  the  sermon;  as  it  is  altogether 
too  late  to  treat  of  them  in  the  conclusion. 

As  I  have  said  more  than  once,  we  must 
guard  against  all  appearance  of  dictation 
in  urging  the  practical  resolution  of  the 
sermon.  The  will  revolts  against  coercion; 
and  it  is  so  jealous  of  its  freedom,  that  it 
often  hardens  itself  to  persuasion  because  it 
suspects  that  this,  its  sovereign  prerogative, 
is  tampered  with  or  endangered.  One  mode 
of  avoiding  such  suspicion  is  to  propose  the 


Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric.         287 

resolution  in  the  first  person  —  for  ourselves 
as  well  as  for  the  people.  If  we  are  to  be 
a  pattern  of  the  flock  from  the  heart,  we 
should  honestly  practise  every  virtue  and 
shun  every  vice  about  which  we  speak 
from  the  pulpit;  and  there  is  no  shame, 
but  great  edification,  in  admitting  that  we 
priests  offend  in  many  things.  Let  us  then 
put  ourselves  with  our  people  before  the 
throne  of  divine  Mercy,  supplicating  pardon 
for  the  past  and  resolving  on  amendment 
for  the  future. 

St.  Alphonsus  gives  an  excellent  method 
of  proposing  the  resolution;  namely,  by 
embodying  it  in  an  act  of  contrition.  The 
preacher  repeats  the  words  of  the  act  with 
all  the  earnestness  and  fervor  he  can  com- 
mand ;  he  gives  the  chief  motives  for  sor- 
row, —  fear,  ingratitude,  love ;  and  in  the 
purpose  of  amendment,  he  dwells  with 
special  stress  on  the  resolution  of  the 
sermon,  giving  in  a  few  words  the  means  of 
keeping  it  faithfully.  If  he  feels  that  he 
has  carried  the  audience  with  him,  and  that 
their  hearts  are  already  glowing  with  the 
ardent  words  he  has  just  spoken,  it  is  best, 
as  the  saying  has  it,  to  ^^let  well  enough 
alone, '^  and  to  finish  with  a  prayer. 


288         Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric. 

3 .  Enforcement  of  resolution  by  motives. 
It  will  frequently  happen  that  the  audience 
will  have  to  be  roused  to  an  emotional  state 
by  strong  practical  motives,  before  they  are 
prepared  to  follow  the  preacher  in  making 
the  act  of  contrition  just  mentioned.  In 
this  case  the  resolution  is  proposed  after  the 
recapitulation  —  not  uncommonly  in  the 
interrogative  form;  and  then  the  motives 
for  accepting  it  are  urged  in  a  series  as- 
cending to  a  climax,  until  the  intent  look, 
the  hushed  silence,  —  perhaps  the  sobs  and 
tears,  —  of  the  crowd  before  us  give  evi- 
dence of  their  being  deeply  moved  by  our 
words  and  prepared  to  adopt  the  resolution 
we  have  presented.  Then  moved  ourselves 
as  much  as  those  we  address,  we  implore  the 
Father  of  mercies  through  the  Blood  of  His 
Son  to  pardon  us  for  the  past,  to  accept 
our  heart-felt  sorrow  for  it,  and  to 
strengthen  us  to  keep  the  resolution  that 
we  now  make.  (Here,  it  will  be  observed, 
the  act  of  contrition  and  the  final  prayer 
are  united.) 

Note.  The  means  of  practising  the  resolution 
should  not  be  mixed  up  with  the  motives  given  in 
the  conclusion.  Young  preachers  are  apt  to  ignore 
this  caution  and  to  make   the   end   of  their  sermon 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         289 

consist  of  a  stale,  wearisome  eulogy  on  prayer,  the 
Sacraments,  flight  of  occasions,  etc.,  as  the  only 
safeguard  of  virtue,  the  only  antidote  of  vice.  True 
and  practical  as  such  words  are,  they  have  no  fresh- 
ness to  please  the  imagination,  no  point  to  touch 
the  heart. 

We  have  seen  that  persuasive  reasoning, 
examples,  comparisons,  and  other  forms  of 
illustration  are  the  ordinary  means  by  which, 
in  the  body  of  a  sermon,  motives  are  brought 
to  bear  on  the  will.  Such  means  would  not 
be  in  keeping  with  the  purely  emotional 
character,  nor  indeed  with  the  requisite 
brevity,  of  the  conclusion.  Hence  instead 
of  them,  the  preacher,  glowing  with  the 
vivid  conception  of  his  theme,  breaks  forth 
into  the  language  of  all  genuine  passion,  — 
entreaty,  exclamation,  apostrophe,  —  a 
language  above  all  the  rules  of  art,  which 
only  the  inspiration  of  the  moment  can 
suggest. 

Although  an  apostolic  man,  in  this  last 
fervid  appeal,  will  be  restrained  by  no 
bashfulness,  no  fear  of  excess,  no  anti- 
cipation of  censure  or  ridicule,  yet  he  will 
regulate  his  strongest  expressions  by  the 
demands  of  propriety  and  taste.  He  will 
especially   keep  in  mind  the   character  of 


290         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

his  audience,  the  nature  of  his  theme,  and 
the  compass  of  his  own  power  of  impas- 
sioned expression. 

a)  If  the  audience  remains  cold  and 
silent  through  the  sermon,  notwithstanding 
the  appeals  made  to  them,  any  impassioned 
address  to  their  feelings  in  the  conclusion 
would  be  as  ineffectual  as  hammering  cold 
iron.  A  few  earnest  words  of  persuasive 
reasoning  may  possibly  touch  them;  — 
when  these  have  been  spoken,  the  hearer 
must  be  left  to  the  working  of  divine 
grace.  Another  kind  of  irresponsive  audi- 
ence is  that  made  up  of  so-called  refined 
people  who  affect  to  be  pained  by  any 
outspoken  expression  of  strong  feehng  in 
the  pulpit.  They  patronize  it  in  music 
and  the  drama,  but  they  pronounce  it 
^^bad  form''  in  preaching.  I  confess  I 
should  have  little  sympathy  with  those 
people,  if  I  were  not  forced  to  admit  that 
we  priests  too  often  give  them  reason  to 
complain  of  our  exaggerated,  unartistic 
expressions  of  strong  and  deep  emotions. 
We  are  not  altogether  to  blame  for  this; 
for,  having  the  poor  always  with  us,  who 
are  moved  more  by  sensible  impressions 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric,  291 

than  by  reasoning,  we  need  to  be  some- 
what melodramatic  to  be  effective.  But  on 
the  principle  of  becoming  ^^all  to  all,  in 
order  to  gain  all,^'  we  certainly  should 
know  how  to  adapt  our  elocution  and  de- 
livery to  any  audience  we  have  to  address, 
so  that  our  ministry  be  not  reviled.  We 
have  a  mission  to  the  cultured  as  well  as  to 
the  uncultured ;  and  to  both  we  must  preach 
as  men  having  power;  both  must  regard 
us  as  their  superiors,  if  our  preaching  is  to 
bear  fruit  among  them. 

A  thoughtful  Protestant  writer  (Professor 
Mahaffy)  confesses  that  among  the  better 
classes,  and  with  educated  congregations, 
he  thinks  the  day  of  preaching  is  gone 
by.  His  words  are  full  of  suggestion  for 
us,  although  used  with  direct  reference  to 
the  Protestant  church  of  Ireland.  ^^  Taking 
first  the  educated  classes, '^  he  writes,  ^'a 
very  large  body  nowadays,  and  often  reach- 
ing down  to  the  artisan  or  servant,  who 
reads  his  newspaper  and  hears  the  conver- 
sation of  enlightened  people,  —  there  is  no 
longer  a  difference  of  intellectual  level  be- 
tween the  preacher  and  his  audience.  He 
is  no  longer  standing  forth,  if  not  an  in- 


292         Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric. 

spired,  at  least  an  authorised  and  authori- 
tative teacher,  who  knows  vastly  more,  and 
can  speak  vastly  better,  than  those  who 
hear  him.  Nor  is  he  their  only  instructor, 
upon  whose  guidance  they  must  depend  for 
all  their  spiritual  sustenance.  They  can 
read  other  opinions;  they  can  search  the 

Scriptures,  even  in  the  original 

If  a  second  Paul  were  to  stand  forth  to  this 
people,  even  though  they  had  the  discretion 
or  the  good  taste  not  to  mock,  they  would 
say  to  him  calmly.  We  will  hear  thee  again 
of  this  matter.     To  such  people,  preaching 

—  at  least  regular,  every-Sunday  preaching 

—  is  wellnigh  useless,  and  for  all  practical 
purposes  an  anachronism.^' 

Are  we  losing  our  hold  on  any  class  of 
our  people,  because  our  preaching,  and 
especially  our  appeals  to  tne  feelings,  are 
too  often  below  the  level  of  school  oratorical 
exercises'? 

b)  The  nature  of  our  theme  should  regu- 
late the  kind  of  motives  to  be  used,  and  the 
manner  of  presenting  them,  in  the  con- 
clusion. Death,  judgment.  Hell,  Impurity, 
Drunkenness,  and  the  grosser  vices  general- 
ly demand  appeals  to  our  sensitive  nature. 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         293 

through  fear  and  terror,  shame,  s^f -con- 
tempt, remorse ;  and  these  appeals  must  be 
made  with  all  the  energy  and  vehemence  of 
which  we  are  capable.  Most  themes,  how- 
ever, developed  in  the  Christian  pulpit 
should  be  enforced  by  motives  that  appeal 
to  our  higher  nature  —  hope,  desire,  grati- 
tude, love,  etc.  The  Testament  of  mercy 
and  love  under  which  we  live  justifies  us  in 
preaching  unbounded  hope  of  salvation  for 
all  mankind ;  and  the  example  of  our  divine 
Saviour  teaches  us  to  win  souls  by  love  — 
not  to  coerce  them  by  fear.  Hence  we 
should  be  untrue  to  our  mission,  were  we  to 
make  the  terrors  of  judgment  the  keynote 
of  our  message  to  the  world.  Nevertheless, 
eternal  punishment  for  unrepented  sin  is  a 
terrible  reality  that  must  not  be  put  out  of 
sight,  because  belief  in  it  is  a  powerful  help 
to  higher  motives,  and  for  some  persons  is 
the  most  effec^.tual  means  of  overcoming 
violent  carnal  temptations. 

c)  Some  preachers  are  incapable  of  those 
impassioned  outbursts  up  to  which  the 
development  of  many  themes  naturally 
leads.  Either  they  feel  no  passion  them- 
selves; or  they  cannot  express  what  they 


294         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric, 

feel  in  adequate  words ;  or  their  voices  have 
not  the  required  compass  or  pliancy;  or, 
finally,  self-consciousness  quenches  what- 
ever fire  might  otherwise  animate  their 
language  and  delivery.  No  matter  what 
the  cause  of  such  inability,  whether  remov- 
able or  not,  it  is  safe  to  say,  that  any  ex- 
pression of  feeling  so  crude  and  amateurish 
as  to  violate  good  taste  and  to  excite  ridicule 
in  any  part  of  the  audience,  should  never 
be  attempted.  Better  infinitely  tell  a  plain 
unvarnished  tale,  than  tear  a  passion  to 
tatters. 

Yet,  in  a  normal  sermon,  what  I  have  al- 
ready said  holds  good  —  that  a  preacher 
should  ordinarily  make  a  direct  appeal  to 
the  feelings  toward  the  end  of  his  discourse. 
The  principal  means  to  be  used  in  this 
appeal  are:  entreaty,  reproach,  interro- 
gation, exclamation,  and  apostrophe.  A 
few  words  about  each  of  these. 

1.  Entreaty  is  a  stock  form  of  bringing 
a  sermon  to  a  conclusion.  Few  preachers 
can  be  found  who  ever  omit  the  time- 
worn  formula,  ^^Let  me  now  exhort  you  in 
conclusion' '  or  its  equivalent.  And  yet  I 
do  not  see  any  useful  purpose  it   serves. 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric ,         295 

It  contains  neither  argument  nor  motive, 
and  therefore  neither  convinces  nor  per- 
suades. It  draws  attention  to  the  approach- 
ing end  of  the  sermon,  and  thereby  distracts 
the  audience  at  a  point  where  distraction  is 
most  hurtful  to  the  fruit  for  which  we  have 
been  laboring.  Notwithstanding  these  ob- 
jections, entreaty  and  exhortation  are  very 
much  favored  by  Scripture  usage,  especially 
in  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul.  No  doubt,  we 
also  could  entreat  and  exhort  with  ad- 
vantage, if  we  had  the  moral  weight  of  the 
Apostle  of  the  Grentiles. 

2.  Eeproach  is  a  strong  motive  to  right 
living  when  conveyed  in  a  kind  fatherly 
manner ;  but  when  it  is  accompanied  with 
sarcasm,  irony,  ridicule,  or  bitterness  in 
any  form,  it  drives  the  hearer  to  protest  and 
exculpation,  and  not  unfrequently  hardens 
him  in  his  sin.  Reproach  is  closely  allied 
to  scolding;  and  to  this  latter,  no  one  takes 
kindly.  Dissatisfaction  with  one^s  self  is 
the  strongest  feeling  that  reproach  should 
produce ;  and  this  feeling  should  be  always 
accompanied  with  hope,  desire,  courage,  re- 
solution to  rise  to  the  higher  life  of  grace. 

3.  Exclamation  ^^is  the  expression  of  a 


296         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric. 

thought,  just  as  it  is  strongly  felt,  not  by  a 
logical  affirmation,  but  by  some  abrupt,  in- 
verted, or  elliptical  construction.''  (Gle- 
nung.)  This  is  the  usual  form  of  direct 
appeal  to  the  feelings.  Its  power  lies  in  its 
earnestness  and  extends  to  every  passion  of 
the  soul. 

Example.  ^^Oh,  the  misery  for  us,  as 
many  of  us  as  shall  be  in  that  number! 
Oh,  the  awful  thought  for  all  eternity! 
Oh,  the  remorseful  sting,  ^I  was  called,  I 
might  have  answered,  and  I  did  not! '  And 
oh,  the  blessedness,  if  we  can  look  back  on 
the  time  of  trial,  when  friends  implored  and 
enemies  scoffed,  and  say,  —  The  misery  for 
me,  which  would  have  been,  had  I  not  fol- 
lowed on,  had  I  hung  back,  when  Christ 
called! ''  Newman. 

4.  Interrogation  is  frequently  used,  not 
to  elicit  an  answer,  but  to  emphasise  a  state- 
ment or  to  add  force  to  the  presentment  of 
a  motive.  When  thus  used  it  becomes  a 
figure  of  speech,  and  when  repeated  in  a 
series  mounting  to  a  climax,  it  exercises  al- 
most overwhelming  persuasive  power  on  an 
audience.  It  has  this  advantage  over  Ex- 
clamation, that  it  appeals  to  the  personal 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric,         297 

judgment  and  feeling  of  the  audience,  there- 
by concihating  their  favor  and,  to  some  ex- 
tent, disarming  criticism.  Moreover,  it  is 
as  available  for  exposition  as  for  persuasion, 
being  a  favorite  mode  with  public  speakers 
of  urging  an  argument. 

Example.  ^^When  at  length,  death 
gnaws  at  your  bones,  and  knocks  at  your 
heart,  when  staggering  and  worn  out,  your 
courage  wasted,  your  hope  gone,  your 
purity,  and,  long  ago,  your  peace  —  will 
he  who  first  enticed  your  steps  serve  your 
extremity  with  one  ofifice  of  kindness?  Will 
he  stay  your  head,  cheer  your  dying  agony 
with  one  word  of  hope,  or  light  the  way  for 
your  coward  steps  to  the  grave,  or  weep 
when  you  are  gone,  or  send  one  pitiful  scrap 
to  your  desolate  family?  What  reveler 
wears  crape  for  a  dead  drunkard?  What 
gang  of  gamblers  ever  intermitted  a  game 
for  the  death  of  a  companion?  What  harlot 
weeps  for  a  harlot  ?  What  debauchee  mourns 
for  a  debauchee?  They  would  carouse  at 
your  funeral,  —  gamble  at  your  funeral. 
If  one  flush  more  of  pleasure  were  to  be  had 
by  it,  they  would  drink  shame  and  ridicule 
to  your  memory  out  of  your  own  skull,  and 


298         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric, 

roar  in  bacchanal  revelry  over  your  dam- 
nation! Oh!  the  cruel  heartlessness  of 
sin!'^  H.  W.  Beecher. 

^^And  is  there  pardon  any  more  for  sin, 

since  sin  has  done  a  deed  like  this? 

Who  dare  stand  beneath  the  Cross  and  say 
that  it  is  hard  for  sin  to  be  forgiven!  Who, 
in  those  hours  of  agony  —  hours  the  most 
sacred  and  solemn  that  the  world  can  ever 
witness  —  who  stood  by  Him  in  His  agony? 
Mary  might  well  be  there,  for  she  was  His 
mother,  and  she  was  sinless;  John  might 
well  be  there,  for  Jesus  loved  him  for  his 
purity,  but  Magdalen  —  she,  but  a  little 
while  ago,  had  lifted  an  unblushing  brow  of 
sin  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem  —  should  such 
a  one  as  she  be  there?  Oh !  dear  Jesus,  Thou 
wouldst  have  it  so;  and  what  sinner  can 
hesitate  to  approach  Thee,  when  he  knows 
that  the  last  look  of  love  from  an  expiring 
Saviour  was  shared  alike  by  Mary  the  sin- 
less and  Mary  the  sinner!  ^' 

Eev.  Joseph  Farrell. 

5.  Apostrophe  represents,  as  speaking 
or  spoken  to,  absent  persons  or  personified 
objects.  It  is  the  strongest  of  all  rhetorical 
figures,  and  can  be  used  effectively  only 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.         299 

when  the  imagination  of  the  preacher  and 
the  audience  soars  high  above  the  plane 
of  sober,  everyday  thought.  The  greatest 
pulpit  orators  have  been  cautious  and 
sparing  in  the  use  of  it,  yet  no  other 
figure  is  capable  of  producing  such  thril- 
ling effect.  Its  use  in  ordinary  parochial 
sermons  can  scarcely  be  excused  from  the 
charge  of  pretentiousness.  Its  rarity  is 
one  of  the  sources  of  its  strength. 

Example.  In  the  peroration  of  his 
sermon  on  the  Fewness  of  the  Elect, 
Massillon  made  use  of  a  figure  resembling 
apostrophe  in  a  passage  never  surpassed 
for  power  and  sublimity.  He  imagined 
the  last  day  and  hour  of  the  world  had 
come  and  Jesus  Christ  was  about  to  appear 
in  His  glory  in  the  midst  of  the  audience 
to  judge  them.  ^^Croyez  vous/'  the 
preacher  exclaimed,  ^^qu'il  s'y  trouvat 
seulement  dix  justes?  Paroissez:  ou  etes- 
vous?  Restes  d^ Israel,  passez  a  la  droite  .  .  . 
0  Dieu,  ou  sont  vos  elus?  et  que  reste-t-il 
pour  votre  partage!^'  These  words  pro- 
duced an  instantaneous  movement-,  and 
the  whole  audience  started  to  their  feet, 
trembling  and  panic-stricken,  as  if  judg- 
ment were  already  upon  them. 


300  Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

6.     Prayer.     A  j&tting  climax  and  con- 
clusion to  every  moral  sermon  is  a  prayer 
to  Grod  the   Father  through  Jesus   Christ 
for    strength   to    carry  out    the    proposed 
resolution.      This  prayer  should  be  short, 
fervent,  composed,  as  far   as  possible,  of 
Scripture  texts,  and   above   all,  it   should 
be  the  natural  outgrowth  —  the  crowning 
grace  and  perfection  of  the  sermon.    When 
a  priest  preaches  Sunday  after  Sunday  to 
the  same  congregation,  his  own  good  taste 
will   keep    him    from    the   mannerism    of 
ending  all  his  sermons  with  prayer.      Yet 
it  must  be  admitted  that  such  mannerism 
is  but  little  noticed,  when   the   prayer  is 
manifestly   the   genuine,   spontaneous  ex- 
pression of  the  preacher's  piety  and  zeal. 
The  final  prayer  need  not  always  be  a 
petition  for  grace ;  it  may  some  times  take 
the  form  of  a  tender,  affectionate  address 
to  Heaven,  revealing  sentiments  of  faith, 
hope,    love,    contrition,    etc.,   in    keeping 
with  the  development  of  the  theme. 


CHAPTER  XYIII. 
Meditation  of  Theme. 

Before  we  begin  to  read  up  matter  for  our 
sermon,  we  have  a  very  important  work  to 
do,  —  a  work  scarcely  ever  alluded  to  by 
writers  on  sacred  eloquence  and  seldom 
done  by  ordinary  preachers.  It  is  the  work 
of  thinking  out  our  theme  for  ourselves,  in- 
dependently of  books.  Such  independent 
thought  is  a  necessary  condition  of  all 
scholarly  knowledge,  and  should,  therefore, 
be  the  foundation  of  all  the  knowledge  we 
communicate  to  our  people. 

^^What  do  I  know  of  this  theme  that  I 
intend  to  speak  about?  How  should  it  be 
divided?  Can  I  give  a  popular  explanation 
of  the  doctrine  it  contains?  Can  I  illustrate 
it?  Do  I  know  any  texts  of  Scripture  and 
any  facts  of  Church  history  that  bear  on  it? 
What  is  its  practical  application  to  life  and 
conduct?  By  what  motives  may  it  be  best 
enforced?^'  Meditation  of  our  theme  im- 
(301) 


302         Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric. 

plies  the  careful  study  of  these  questions; 
it,  therefore,  requires  us  to  prepare  a  skele- 
ton sermon,  not  from  external  help,  but 
from  the  knowledge  we  have  already  stored 
up.  Of  course,  we  do  not  preach  a  sermon 
so  prepared,  unless  our  reading  has  been  so 
extensive  and  our  memory  is  so  tenacious, 
that  we  have  at  hand  within  us  all  the  re- 
quirements for  the  exposition  and  enforce- 
ment of  our  theme,  as  accurate  and  com- 
plete as  they  can  be  found  in  books.  This 
is  rarely  the  case ;  hence,  the  meditation  of 
our  theme  has  usually  to  be  supplemented 
by  full  and  judicious  topical  reading. 

But  the  supplemental  knowledge  for 
sermons  to  be  drawn  from  sources  outside 
our  own  minds  is  not  as  much  as  we  or- 
dinarily think,  nor  is  it  at  all  comparable  in 
effective  force  to  that  which  we  derive  from 
the  independent  study  of  our  theme. 

Our  Catholic  preachers  are  usually  too 
diffident  of  their  powers  —  they  lean  too 
much  on  the  work  of  others  —  in  the  pre- 
paration of  their  sermons.  Yet  I  am  con- 
vinced that,  with  earnest  thought  on  their 
theme,  they  could  evolve  much  of  the  matter 
that  they  seek  for  in  books.     No  doubt, 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric,         303 

they  should  not  rely  on  memory  for  Script- 
ure texts  and  doctrinal  definitions;  but 
these,  after  all,  form  only  a  very  small  part 
of  their  discourse.  The  most  of  it  is  taken 
up  with  illustration  and  enforcement;  and 
there  is  no  reason  why  matter  for  these  may 
not  be  drawn,  at  least  in  part,  from  the 
preacher^s  own  store  of  knowledge,  previous- 
ly acquired  from  books  and  experience.  If 
we  analyze  the  sermons  of  any  of  those  men 
who  have  acquired  world-wide  fame  as  pul- 
pit orators,  we  shall  find  that  they  were 
above  all  things  original,  that  they  never 
culled  and  retailed  other  men's  thoughts, 
no  matter  how  beautiful  and  appropriate, 
but  out  of  their  own  treasure  brought  forth 
new  things  and  old.  It  is  but  false  modesty 
to  say  that  we  can  never  become  famous 
pulpit  orators,  and  therefore  need  not  aim 
at  originality.  It  is  a  laudable  ambition  to 
aspire  to  do  Grod's  work  along  the  line  fol- 
lowed by  those  who  did  it  best;  and  that 
line  was  undoubtedly  in  the  direction  of 
original,  independent  meditation  of  the 
theme. 

Besides,  the  knowledge   gained  by  this 
meditation  will  be  communicated  to   the 


304         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric, 

audience  with  very  much  greater  freshness 
and  force  than  that  which  is  derived  from 
books.  The  former  knowledge  we  have 
made  our  own ;  therefore  it  bears  the  stamp 
of  our  individuaUty,  and  has  for  the  hearer 
the  interest  and  inspiring  power  of  a  new 
creation.  It  may  be  nothing  new  in  itself, 
but  it  is  told  in  a  new  way —  a  way  in  which 
it  has  never  been  told  before  —  hence  its 
charm  and  power.  On  the  other  hand, 
knowledge  taken  from  books  and  given 
out  without  assimilation  or  adjustment  with 
knowledge  already  acquired,  has  but  little 
vital  force  in  it;  it  is  not  realized  in  the 
speaker's  own  mind  and  heart,  and  there- 
fore it  is  not  energized  with  that  earnest- 
ness and  fulness  of  detail  and  wealth  of 
illustration  that  would  impress  it  on  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  the  audience. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  meditation  of 
the  theme  here  recommended  supposes 
mental  qualities  of  a  high  order  in  the 
preacher.  Concentration  of  attention,  as- 
sociation of  ideas,  fertility  of  invention, 
logical  acumen,  —  all  these  are  required  to 
bring  out  what  latent  knowledge  there  is  in 
him  of  the  doctrine  he  is  about  to  teach. 


Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric.         305 

In  other  words,  he  should  be  a  man  of 
active,  fertile,  well-trained,  and  well-dis- 
ciplined mind. 

But  mental  qualities  will  profit  little  with- 
out a  deep  sense  of  the  obligation  of  using 
them.  Many  well  equipped  minds  are  too 
indolent  to  think  out  original  matter  for 
sermons;  they  do  not  see  the  necessity  of 
it  as  long  as  abundance  of  second-hand 
matter  may  with  little  or  no  trouble  be 
gathered  from  books.  The  consequence  is 
that  their  preaching  is  worth  just  what  it 
costs. 

The  habit  of  daily  meditation  and  of 
spiritual  reading  for  our  own  good  makes  it 
easy  to  collect  original  matter  for  sermons. 
Indeed,  the  thoughts  and  sentiments  that 
we  take  home  to  ourselves  in  prayer  are 
those  most  easy  as  well  as  useful  to  bring 
home  to  others  in  preaching.  But  apart 
from  this  consideration,  meditation  is  sub- 
stantially the  same  process,  whether  the  end 
be  our  own  or  our  neighbor's  welfare.  A 
priest,  then,  who  gives  twenty  minutes  or 
half  an  hour  every  morning  to  the  consider- 
ation of  some  revealed  truth  in  its  bearing 
on  his  own  life,  will  find  little  difficulty  in 


306         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

studying  the  bearing  of  that  or  any  other 
revealed  truth  on  the  lives  of  others. 

Note.  It  is  questionable  if  a  priest  would  gain  any- 
thing by  meditating  for  his  own  benefit  the  theme  of 
his  sermon.  There  is  too  much  temptation  while  so 
meditating  to  adapt  his  reflections  and  apply  his  con- 
clusions to  others.  Such  an  exercise  would  be  a  useful 
study,  but  it  could  scarcely  be  called  an  act  of  personal 
devotion.  It  would  be  much  better  to  think  occasion- 
ally during  the  preparation  how  far  he  himself  is  in- 
fluenced by  what  he  urges  on  his  people. 

An  hour's  meditation  on  the  theme  will 
be  amply  sufficient  to  collect  and  arrange 
all  that  the  preacher  knows  about  it.  The 
earlier  in  the  week  this  hour  is  devoted  to 
the  purpose  the  better  will  be  the  result. 
The  order  of  the  questions  at  the  beginning 
of  this  chapter  should  be  generally  followed 
in  the  meditation;  and,  of  course,  the 
thoughts  that  present  themselves  ought  to 
be  written  down.  After  each  note  thus 
taken  more  or  less  space  should  be  left  to 
be  filled  up  afterwards  from  our  topical 
reading. 

Note.  The  more  carefully  and  tastefully  notes  are 
taken,  the  more  chance  they  have  of  being  kept  for 
future  use.  They  need  not  be  written  in  complete 
sentences ;  but  they  should  not  be  so  abbreviated, 
that  the  reading  of  them  afterwards  will  present  any 
difficulty.  It  is  not  advisable  to  have  separate  books 
for    preparatory   notes   and   written  sermons.     When 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric,         307 

but  one  book  is  used,  reference  to  the  notes  is  much 
easier.  A  thin,  well-bound,  quarto  manuscript  will 
be  found  the  most  available. 

Young  preachers  will  find  their  chief 
difficulty  at  this  stage  of  their  preparation 
in  working  out  their  own  division  of  the 
theme.  Yet  the  individuality  of  the  sermon 
is  seen  in  the  division  more,  perhaps,  than 
in  any  other  of  its  elements.  I  think  that 
sermons  written  for  practice,  as  well  as  those 
written  early  on  the  mission,  should  have 
themes  so  simple,  that  they  could  not  be 
divided.  Each  of  them  would  thus  consist 
of  one  point  only,  and  with  the  exposition 
and  enforcement  of  this  twenty  minutes 
could  be  easily  covered.  Carpenters  serv- 
ing their  apprenticeship  are  not  allowed  to 
spoil  wood  in  attempting  elaborate  and  com- 
plicated work :  they  have  to  become  adepts 
first  in  simple,  easy  constructions.  —  If 
our  young  preachers  were  subjected  or  sub- 
jected themselves  to  a  similar  discipline, 
there  would  be  fewer  exhibitions  of  crude, 
amateur  work  in  the  pulpit. 

I  would  therefore,  recommend  young 
preachers  to  limit  their  theme  to  one  point, 
or  head,  and  to  concentrate  all  their  ener- 
gies on  the  development  of  this  until  they 
become  perfectly  familiar  with  all  the  forms 


308         Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric, 

of  exposition  and  persuasion.  Even  when 
they  will  have  grown  older,  they  will  often 
find  it  wiser  and  more  useful  to  confine 
themselves  to  one  point  than  to  spend  their 
energy  and  burden  their  hearers'  attention 
by  adhering  blindly  to  the  traditional  three- 
fold or  manifold  division.  Indeed,  the 
form  of  exposition  given  in  this  work  is 
better  adapted  to  undivided  than  to  divided 
sermons. 

However,  there  are  numerous  themes  that 
cannot  be  adequately  treated  without  di- 
vision. When  a  young  preacher  takes  up 
any  of  them,  he  ought  to  deliberate  how  to 
divide  it  without  the  aid  of  sermon  books. 
His  first  attempts  may  be  crude  a  nd  un- 
artistic ;  but  they  will  be  his  own,  and  there- 
fore more  natural  —  more  in  keeping  with 
the  rest  of  his  discourse,  than  those  he 
might  borrow  from  printed  sources.  Self- 
reliance  will  serve  him  here  much  more  than 
self-distrust;  for,  although  he  should  not 
have  the  silliness  of  putting  himself  on  a 
level  with  great  preachers  or  even  with  the 
writers  of  sermon  books  (a  lower  class  al- 
together), yet  he  is  a  better  judge  than 
either  of  these  can  be  of  what  division  is 
best  adapted  to  the  particular  audience  he 


Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric,         309 

is  about  to  address.  The  arrangement  of  a 
sermon  intended  for  the  court  of  Louis  the 
Fourteenth  —  though  the  sermon  were 
preached  by  Massillon  —  is  not  necessarily 
the  arrangement  best  suited  to  an  Ohio  or 
a  Kentucky  congregation.  Nay  more,  a 
zealous  pastor  without  any  pretention  to 
eloquence  may  judge  rightly  that  the  di- 
vision and  treatment  of  a  theme  found  in 
some  favorite  American  sermon  book  is  not 
as  suitable  to  his  people  as  that  which  he 
himself  devises. 

Of  course,  it  will  sometimes  happen  that 
in  the  books  we  read  for  matter  we  shall 
come  across  a  better  division  than  the  one 
that  has  grown  out  of  our  meditation  of  the 
theme.  When  this  is  so,  we  are  plainly 
obliged  to  set  aside  our  own  for  the  better 
form  of  treatment  thus  presented  to  us,  as 
our  primary  duty  in  preaching  is  to  confer 
on  our  hearers  the  greatest  possible  spiritual 
benefit. 

NoT^.  As,  in  listening  to  a  sermon,  we  can  infer 
from  various  indications  how  much  careful  study  was 
spent  in  preparing  it,  so,  too,  in  reading  a  sermon,  it  is 
not  difiicult  to  distinguish,  at  least,  broadly,  how  much 
of  it  is  the  result  of  original  study  or  meditation,  how 
much,  of  preparatory  or  remembered,  though  not  di- 
gested, reading.     The  more  eminent  the  preacher,  the 


310         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

less  bookishness  in  his  style  and  the  less  book  learning 
in  his  matter.  Sermons  abounding  in  apposite  illus- 
trations —  similes,  analogies,  antitheses,  etc.  —  are  the 
work  of  original  thinkers ;  but  those  that  consist  most- 
ly of  abstractions  and  are  taken  up  with  teaching  with- 
out any  thought  of  pleasing  or  moving^  if  not  the  pro- 
ducts of  metaphysical  or  unemotional  minds,  are  gener- 
ally reproductions  of  unassimilated  reading. 

The  reading  of  spiritual  books,  wisely- 
selected,  will  help  very  much  the  meditation 
of  one's  theme.  It  stores  the  mind  with 
spiritual  knowledge,  refines  and  elevates  its 
tone,  and  kindles  in  the  heart  that  fervor, 
enthusiasm,  inspiration  which  every  true 
preacher  tries  to  impart  to  his  hearers. 
Among  ascetical,  as  well  as  among  literary 
authors,  each  of  us  has  a  favorite  who  has 
a  masterful  influence  over  the  intellect, 
feelings  and  will  that  none  of  the  others 
can  command.  In  literature,  such  domi- 
nation is  often  hurtful ;  but  no  hurt  can  be 
feared  in  the  ascetical  life  from  the  most  ab- 
solute surrender  of  ourselves  to  any  ap- 
proved spiritual  writer  with  whose  mind 
and  heart  ours  beat  in  perfect  accord.  We 
should  always  keep  one  or  other  of  such 
works  by  us,  to  stimulate  us  to  think  or 
write  and  to  sustain  us  when  we  find  our 
attention  or  energy  failing. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

Reading;  for  Matter. 

We  have  now  taken  the  first  important 
step  in  the  immediate  preparation  of  our 
sermon;  namely,  the  meditation  of  our 
theme  with  a  view  to  present  it  adequately 
to  our  people.  Very  few  preachers,  how- 
ever, could  produce  a  good  sermon  from 
this  meditation  alone.  The  definitions 
would  probably  fail  in  clearness  and  accur- 
acy, and  the  illustrations,  in  point  and 
appositeness ;  while  the  historical  develop- 
ment would  in  all  likelihood  be  inexact  in 
quotations,  unscholarly  in  exegesis,  and 
vague  and  uninteresting  in  the  narration  of 
facts.  What,  then,  is  the  next  step  to  be 
taken?  It  is  to  read  for  supplemental 
matter,  —  for  more  definite  knowledge,  for 
new  ideas,  for  the  broader  comprehension 
of  our  theme  that  communion  with  great 
minds  is  apt  to  give  us. 
(311) 


312         Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric, 

The  knowledge  gathered  from  books 
should  be  absorbed,  assimilated,  ^^made  our 
own,^'  before  it  is  imparted  to  our  audience. 
We  stand  in  the  pulpit,  not  to  echo  the 
thoughts  of  others,  no  matter  how  eminent 
they  be ;  we  have  a  direct  message  to  deliver 
from  our  divine  Master,  and,  as  faithful 
servants,  we  are  supposed  to  have  realized 
its  meaning,  to  be  saturated  with  faith  in  it, 
to  have  made  it  the  guide  and  rule  of  our 
own  lives  before  we  enforce  it  as  the  guide 
and  rule  of  the  lives  of  others.  This  we 
surely  do  not  do,  when  we  commit  to  mem- 
ory and  deliver  verbatim  as  our  own  whole 
passages  taken  from  some  great  writer  or 
speaker.  In  ninety  nine  cases  out  of  a 
hundred  such  plagiarized  passages  are  un- 
suited  to  the  audience  to  which  they  are 
addressed;  and  instead  of  being  a  source 
of  edification,  their  inconsistency  with  the 
rest  of  the  sermon  provokes  ridicule  and 
contempt.  We  are,  indeed,  justified  in 
using  the  division  of  our  theme  made  by 
some  eminent  preacher,  should  we  have 
failed  in  making  a  suitable  division  of  it 
by  ourselves ;  but  the  development  of  the 
parts  should  be  all  our  own.     In  fact,  as 


Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric.         313 

long  as  we  do  not  preach  thoughts  that  are 
our  own  or  that  we  have  made  our  own,  we 
shall  never  attain  any  respectable  proficien- 
cy in  the  pulpit.  We  shall  have  no  confi- 
dence in  ourselves,  even  in  giving  simple 
catechetical  instructions.  And  when  we 
are  called  upon  to  speak  in  public  on  some 
subject  of  local  or  national  importance,  we 
shall  either  speak  the  dullest  platitudes,  or, 
by  utterly  breaking  down,  bring  discredit 
on  ourselves  and  the  Church  we  are  sup- 
posed to  represent. 

NoTK.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  good  has  been  done 
in  the  past  by  taking  the  words  of  others  and  delivering 
them  as  one's  own.  Zealous  men  were  in  the  habit  of 
doing  so  formerly,  because,  through  stress  of  persecu- 
tion, the  Church  had  then  to  dispense  with  much  ne- 
cessary learning  in  her  ministers ;  and  many  of  those 
called  to  the  care  of  souls  felt  themselves  imcompetent 
to  prepare  and  preach  original  sermons.  But  those 
times  are  past,  and  with  them  is  past  the  justification 
of  reproducing  the  sermons  of  others.  With  the  oppor- 
tunities of  advanced  intellectual  culture  we  possess 
and  in  view  of  the  high  standard  of  education  among 
our  American  people,  I  say  advisedly  that  no  young 
man  should  be  ordained  from  our  seminaries  who  is 
not  able  to  prepare  and  preach  his  own  sermons. 

We  may  read  for  matter  in  two  ways :  the 
first  is  to  read  some  recognized  author  who 
has  written  on  the  subject  of  our  sermon, 
and  to  take  notes  of  all  that  we  find  useful  to 


314         Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric, 

our  purpose.  The  second  is  to  read  only  by 
topics ;  that  is,  to  read  only  those  passages 
of  an  author  which  will  supplement  the 
knowledge  we  already  have  of  our  theme. 

The  former  manner  of  reading  is  necessa- 
ry for  those  who  have  little  or  no  knowledge 
of  what  they  are  about  to  preach.  They 
cannot  study  the  bare  theme  on  which  they 
have  to  speak,  as  a  school  boy  studies  his 
lessons  for  class.  They  must  have  at  least 
a  general  knowledge  of  the  subject  to  which 
the  theme  belongs ;  and  even  of  the  theme 
itself  they  must  know  more  than  they  will 
impart  to  their  hearers.  No  one  ever  teaches 
efficiently  who,  besides  what  he  conveys, 
has  not  a  reserve  of  intellectual  wealth 
which  time  or  the  occasion  does  not  allow 
hina  to  exhaust.  Some  will  protest  that  they 
have  no  time  for  so  much  reading.  But 
they  have  only  themselves  to  blame  that 
they  are  obliged  to  it ;  for  it  would  not  be 
necessary  if  they  had  given  a  little  time 
every  day  uniformly  to  the  study  of  theology 
and  Sacred  Scripture.  The  reading,  how- 
ever, here  required  is  not  so  great  as  may 
at  first  sight  be  imagined.  The  vague 
knowledge  of  the  subject  that  remains  from 


Manual  of  Sacred  EJietoric,         315 

seminary  days  may  easily  be  made  fresh 
and  definite  by  cursory  perusal  of  the  heads 
of  chapters  or  of  a  good  general  index  with 
occasional  references  to  the  text.  The 
theme  itself  will,  of  course,  require  more 
careful  and  reflective  reading,  which  should 
not  be  deferred  to  the  latter  part  of  the 
week,  as  the  longer  the  mind  has  to  dwell 
on  the  knowledge  taken  in,  the  more  thor- 
oughly will  the  ideas  be  assimilated. 

The  second  way  of  reading  for  matter, 
called  the  topical,  or  by  topics,  is  that  which 
is  usually  adopted  by  preachers,  because,  as 
a  rule,  they  have  a  sufficiently  full  know- 
ledge of  their  subject-matter  to  dispense 
them  from  the  wider  reading  spoken  of 
above.  When  meditating  their  theme, 
however,  they  generally  find  that  they  are 
doubtful  or  ignorant  of  some  things  belong- 
ing to  its  development,  while  their  know- 
ledge of  the  rest  is  sufficiently  full  and  pre- 
cise. They  refer  to  books,  then,  for  light, 
not  on  the  subject  or  the  theme,  but  on 
those  points  of  the  latter  about  which  they 
are  in  darkness  j  and  this  is  reading  by 
topics.  Much  self-restraint  is  needed  to 
confine  this  reading  to  what  is  absolutely 


316         Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric. 

necessary.  All  side  issues  must  be  ignored ; 
aud  all  purely  speculative  questions  sug- 
gested by  the  topic,  no  matter  how  useful 
and  interesting  to  ourselves,  must  be  left 
to  after  investigation. 

Before  we  begin  to  read  by  topics,  we 
should  have  written  out  under  distinct 
heads  all  that  we  know  about  the  theme. 
Should  our  knowledge  under  any  of  those 
heads  be  incomplete,  we  should  leave  place 
for  notes  to  be  taken  from  books.  For  this 
purpose,  it  will  be  useful  to  keep  before  us 
the  following  questions  arranged  in  the 
order  in  which  the  proposition  is  normally 
developed.  When  there  are  several  points, 
the  questions  are  the  same  for  each. 

1.  Definition:  — 

Terms  to  be  defined  ? 

Doctrine  to  be  defined  ? 

Enumeration  of  parts  ? 

Cause  and  effect  ? 

Adjuncts? 

Properties  and  accidents  ?    .     .     .     . 

2.  Dlustration:  — 

Examples? 

Similes? 

Metaphors?       

Comparisons? 


Manual  of  Sacred  Hhetoric,         317 

Contrasts? 

Analogies? 

Quotations? 

3.  Historical  Development:  — 

Sacred  Scripture  ? 

Church  History  ? 

Profane  History  % 

Eecent  Occurrences  % 

Personal  Experience  ? 

4.  Removal  of  Obstacles:  — 

On  part  of  Intellect?  .     .     .     .     .     . 

Onpart  of  Will? 

5.  Motives:  — 

Of  Attraction,  direct  (Will)  ?  .     .     . 

Of  Attraction,  indirect  (Passions)?  . 

Of  Eepulsion,  direct  (Will)?  .     .     . 

Of  Repulsion,  indirect  (Passions)?  . 
It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  remark  that  all 
these  questions  need  not  be  answered  in 
every  sermon  we  write.  The  preacher  must 
use  his  own  judgment  and  taste  in  deciding 
what  matter  suggested  by  them  should  be 
developed  and  what  passed  over. 

NoT:^.  If  any  one  be  disposed  to  complain  of  the 
mental  work  enjoined  in  this  and  the  preceding  chap- 
ter, he  should  remember  that  as  sacred  oratory  is  one 
of  the  fine  arts  and,  indeed,  the  noblest  of  them  all,  no 
one  can  hope  to  become  proficient  in  it  unless  he  make 
up  his  mind  to  spare  no  labor  or  drudgery  it  may 
demand  of  him.     I  know  well,  there  is  an  impression 


318         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

among  some  of  us  that  preaching  is  "the  easiest  thing 
in  the  world."  This  would  be  true  enough,  if  any 
kind  of  talking  on  sacred  things  in  the  pulpit  were 
preaching;  but  it  is  not  so,  any  more  than  striking 
the  keys  of  a  piano  at  random  is  music,  or  smearing 
canvas  with  ochre  is  painting. 

To  reconcile  ourselves  to  the  laborious 
details  necessary  for  efficient  preaching,  we 
must  love  it  as  an  art  and,  still  more,  we 
must  reverence  it  as  the  instrument  by 
which  God^s  boundless  mercy  and  love  are 
proclaimed  to  the  world,  by  which  innum- 
erable souls  are  predestined  to  be  saved,  and 
by  which  the  zealous,  painstaking  preacher 
himself  merits  to  be  crowned  with  a  special 
glory  in  eternity. 

1.  And  now  as  to  the  books  we  are  to 
consult.  Sacred  Scripture,  of  course  holds 
the  first  place,  as  it  with  Tradition  is  the 
fountain-head  of  divine  revelation.  The 
Bible  should  be  at  the  right  hand  of  every 
preacher  while  he  is  preparing  his  sermon. 
But  the  Bible  will  not  help  him  much 
unless  he  has  some  means  of  finding  out 
readily  the  required  texts  on  whatever 
subject  he  is  studying.  This  means  is 
supplied  by  a  Concordance,  a  work  absolute- 
ly necessary  to  every  preacher.  Another 
necessary  aid  to  Bible  consultation  is  an 


Manual  of  Sacred  Ehetoric.         319 

up-to-date  commentary,  at  least  on  the 
Grospels  and  the  Epistles.  The  amount 
of  exegesis  done  in  our  seminaries  is  of 
necessity  too  small  to  be  any  help  in  the 
preparation  of  a  sermon.  All  that  the  most 
competent  professor  of  Scripture  can  do  for 
his  pupils  is  to  inspire  them  with  such  a  love 
of  the  Written  Word  as  will  lead  them  to 
continue  the  study  of  it  in  after  life  on  the 
mission.  If  he  does  not  do  this,  the  time 
spent  in  the  Scripture  class  might  be,  per- 
haps, better  spent  on  the  playground. 

2.  Theology  develops  and  systematizes 
the  revelation  made  in  Scripture  and  Tradi- 
tion. It  not  only  teaches  in  precise  and 
reliable  terms  what  that  revelation  is,  and 
when  and  under  what  circumstances  it  was 
made ;  but  traces  its  history  down  to  our 
own  day,  shows  the  vicissitudes  it  has 
undergone,  and  defends  it  by  irrefragable 
arguments  against  those  who  inpugn  it. 
Moreover,  in  one  of  its  branches  (Moral 
Theology),  it  teaches  the  principles  and 
laws  by  which,  through  our  Mediator  Jesus 
Christ,  we  are  guided  to  our  last  end,  and 
also  the  helps  (Sacraments,  etc.)  by  which 
we  are  enabled  to  attain  it. 

From  this  view  of  Theology  it  is  manifest 


320         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric, 

that  it  ranks  in  importance  next  to  Sacred 
Scripture  as  a  source  of  reliable  matter  for 
sermons.  We  should  consult  it  especially 
for  Scripture  texts  bearing  on  our  theme, 
for  definitions,  for  historical  development 
of  doctrine,  and  for  the  refutation  of  objec- 
tions. The  compendiums  of  theology  used 
in  seminaries  are  practically  worthless  as 
helps  in  the  preparation  of  a  sermon.  Hence 
every  priest  should  be  provided  with  at  least 
one  of  the  larger  works  on  each  branch  of  the 
science.  He  should  also  have  St.  Thomas's 
Summa  and  never  weary  of  referring  to  it. 
It  may  seem  too  much  to  recommend  more- 
over the  works  written  by  what  may  be  called 
specialist  theologians  on  particular  subjects, 
such  as  the  Incarnation,  Grace,  the  Infused 
Virtues,  etc.  Yet  the  help  derived  from  ref- 
erence to  them  can  scarcely  be  exaggerated. 
3.  Church  and  profane  history,  the  Lives 
of  the  Saints,  and  ascetical  works  will  sup- 
ply much  necessary  matter  for  topical  read- 
ing. They  are  particularly  useful  for  the 
examples  they  abound  in  and  for  the  light 
they  throw  on  the  development  of  doctrine. 
Still  they  will  not  help  a  preacher  much 
unless  he  has  the  habit  of  reading  them 
apart  from  the  proximate  preparation  of  his 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.         321 

sermon.  Even  with  this  habit,  he  must 
have  a  tenacious  memory  and  much  mental 
activity  in  associating  related  ideas;  else 
the  most  extensive  and  assiduous  reading 
will  be  of  little  service  to  him.  Perhaps 
the  best  way  of  making  those  studies  help- 
ful for  preaching  is  to  take  notes  of  striking 
passages,  examples,  etc.,  that  we  find  in 
them;  and  afterwards  to  index  those  notes 
according  to  the  subjects  they  illustrate. 

4.  Plans  of  sermons.  Thesauri  Predica- 
torum.  Panoramas,  Adjumenta,  and  all 
other  artificial  helps  composed  to  facilitate 
the  preparation  of  a  sermon  have  no  place 
among  the  books  I  would  recommend  to  a 
young  preacher.  They  may  suggest  now 
and  again  a  few  good  illustrations ;  but  they 
engender  and  foster  a  lazy  habit  of  working ; 
the  Scripture  texts  they  give  without  para- 
phrase or  application  are  often  inappropriate 
and  therefore  misleading;  their  quotations 
from  the  Fathers  are  practically  worthless ; 
and  their  divisions,  or  points,  are  generally 
unsuited  to  an  American  audience.  For  a 
young  preacher,  there  is  undoubtedly  much 
labor  and  difficulty  in  working  out  a  sermon 
independently  of  these  factitious  helps; 
but  with  each  sermon  so  prepared  by  him 


322         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric. 

the  work  becomes  less;  the  habit  of  self- 
reliance —  of  independence  of  unnecessary 
outside  help  —  grows  on  him  day  by  day ; 
and  after  a  few  years  he  will  find  that  the 
notes  he  has  accumulated  will  be  fuller  and 
more  available  for  future  use  than  any  on  the 
same  subjects  he  can  find  collected  and  pub- 
lished to  aid  him  in  preparing  his  sermon. 
For  several  forms  of  illustration,  such  as 
comparison,  contrast,  metaphor,  etc.,  and 
for  most  of  the  motives  to  be  used,  we  must 
relyon  the  fertility  of  our  own  minds,  asbooks 
will  be  of  no  help  to  us  when  we  are  engaged 
in  the  actual  work  of  preparation.  Most 
live  preachers  are  on  the  alert  to  find  illus- 
trations and  motives  for  their  sermons  in 
everything  they  read  and  in  the  ordinary 
happenings  of  their  daily  lives.  All  true 
artists  and  all  earnest  professional  men  do 
the  same,  each  in  his  special  line  of  work ; 
and  they  do  it  spontaneously,  without  effort 
or  forethought,  because  they  are  true  and 
earnest  and  have  their  hearts  in  what  they 
do.  Were  we  Catholic  priests  to  imitate 
them,  our  illustrations  would  be  very  much 
more  luminous  and  interesting  than  they 
are,  and  our  motives  more  powerful  to  move 
the  feelings  and  the  will. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

Arrangement  and  Composition. 

Little  needs  to  be  said  here  about  the  ar- 
rangement of  matter  in  a  sermon,  because 
according  to  the  plan  I  have  recommended 
the  preacher  has  before  him  what  may  be 
called  a  stereotyped  outline  which  he  fills  up 
by  meditation  and  topical  reading.  Hence, 
the  matter  is  no  sooner  found  than  it  is 
arranged  in  its  proper  place.  As  to  the 
order  of  arguments,  about  which  writers  on 
oratory  are  so  much  divided,  the  question 
does  not  affect  us,  as  in  an  ordinary  sermon 
to  a  Catholic  audience  we  should  not  use 
formal  arguments.  We  should  explain  the 
origin  and  development  of  revealed  truth, 
but  we  should  not  prove  it.  If  it  be  asked, 
however,  in  what  order  several  texts  bearing 
on  our  theme  should  be  cited  and  explained, 
I  answer  that  the  clearest,  most  forcible, 
and  most  applicable  should  be  taken  first, 
then  the  others  should  be  given  incidentally 
and  in  gloho. 

(323) 


324         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

Note.  When  a  doctrine  like  the  Blessed  Eucharist 
is  revealed  in  the  Epistles  as  well  as  in  the  Gospels, 
the  texts  are  to  be  quoted  and  explained  in  the  order 
of  time. 

In  the  development  of  each  point,  exposi- 
tion should  insensibly  grow  into  persuasion, 
and  for  this  purpose  suitable  motives  should 
be  adduced.  Those  motives  should  become 
more  and  more  impassioned  as  we  proceed 
from  point  to  point,  and  hence  be  arranged 
as  far  as  possible  in  the  form  of  a  climax. 

Young  preachers  ought  to  write  their 
sermons  and  commit  them  to  memory. 
This  is  a  laborious  work,  and  leaves  little 
time  for  recreation,  at  least  for  the  first 
year  after  ordination.  Hence  many  shirk 
it,  confident  that  they  will  not  break  down, 
and  that  their  sermons  will  not  be  worse 
than  those  they  usually  hear.  They  have  no 
generous  aspirations  to  make  them  better; 
and  they  do  not  reflect  that  a  dry,  soulless 
sermon  from  one  who  has  grown  old  in  the 
ministry  is  less  of  an  anomaly  than  a  similar 
sermon  from  a  young  priest,  whose  soul, 
fresh  from  the  consecrating  hands  of  his 
bishop,  is  supposed  to  be  aglow  and  vibrat- 
ing with  the  Spirit  of  Grod  who  has  descend- 
ed upon  it.     Those  young  men  go  into  the 


Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric.         325 

pulpit^  as  some  one  wittily  remarked,  with 
nothing  to  say  —  and  they  say  it.  This  is 
not  the  place  to  preach  to  them ;  but  I  must 
say,  that  their  seminary  training  was  an 
utter  failure,  if  their  conscience  does  not 
upraid  them  severely  for  such  careless  exe- 
cution of  their  divine  Master's  work. 

In  regard  to  the  writiDg  and  memorizing 
of  sermons,  three  periods  in  the  life  of  a 
priest  may,  I  think,  be  distinguished:  the 
period  of  writing  and  memorizing;  the 
period  of  writing  without  memorizing;  and 
the  period  of  careful,  minute  preparation 
without  the  one  or  the  other.  The  first  of  these 
should  last  until  a  complete  course  of  ser- 
mons and  instructions  has  been  written,  or, 
at  the  very  least,  during  the  first  two  or 
three  years  on  the  mission,  until  the  young 
preacher  has  become  perfectly  familiar  with 
the  form  of  a  sermon,  has  learned  to  answer 
under  the  heads  of  definition,  illustration, 
historical  development,  refutation,  and  per- 
suasion the  different  questions  given  in  a 
preceding  chapter,  and,  lastly,  has  acquired 
such  self-possession  and  command  of  lan- 
guage that  he  will  be  practically  safe  from 
the  danger  of  useless  digressions,  of  inac- 


326         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric. 

curacy  of  expression,  or,  worst  of  all,  of 
utter  failure  of  memory.  I  think  it  is  arbi- 
trary and  unjustifiable  to  say,  as  some  do, 
that  this  period  should  extend  over  the  first 
five  years  on  the  mission.  Many  young 
priests  may  with  advantage  enter  on  the 
second  period  after  their  second  or  third 
year  in  the  ministry. 

The  second  period  covers  the  interval 
during  which  we  still  continue  to  write  our 
sermons,  without,  however,  committing 
them  to  memory.  This  period  will  confirm 
us  in  the  habit  of  clear,  logical  thinking, 
and  it  will  also  give  us  greater  facility  in 
writing  idiomatic  English.  Another  advan- 
tage to  be  derived  from  it  will  be  an  easy, 
natural  flow  of  speech,  mostly  divested  of 
that  rigidity  of  form  that  can  hardly  ever 
be  entirely  removed  from  written  composi- 
tion. The  duration  of  this  period  can 
scarcely  be  determined ;  but  for  a  preacher 
of  average  abilities  I  think  one  year  should 
be  sufficient  to  derive  from  it  all  the  advan- 
tages I  have  mentioned. 

The  third  and  last  period  dispenses  with 
writing  and  memorizing  a  sermon,  but  it 
does  not  dispense  with  its  careful  and  min- 


Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric.         327 

ute  preparation.  The  text,  the  definite  ob- 
ject, the  proposition,  the  plan  and  division, 
must  be  distinctly  determined  and  written 
out.  Then  the  exposition  of  each  point  by 
definition,  illustration,  etc.,  as  well  as  the 
motives  to  be  urged,  have  to  be  considered, 
not  vaguely  and  summarily,  but  singly  and 
thoroughly  as  if  we  were  actually  writing 
the  sermon.  It  is  advisable  to  take  notes 
of  the  thoughts  and  sentiments  that  occur 
to  us  in  the  course  of  this  preparation ;  as, 
if  we  do  not,  we  are  apt  to  forget  in  the 
heat  of  delivery  some  of  our  most  effective 
passages  and  to  be  led  from  the  main  course 
of  development  into  prolix  digressions, 
from  which  the  return  is  both  awkward  and 
difficult. 

In  this  third  period,  a  preacher  has  to  ex- 
press his  thoughts  and  sentiments  in  words 
that  come  to  him  in  the  moment  of  delivery, 
without  study  or  premeditation.  Hence  he 
must  have  a  ready  and  copious  supply  of 
appropriate  language ;  the  art  of  composi- 
tion must  be  like  a  second  nature  to  him ; 
he  must  be  self-possessed,  even  when  he  is 
most  animated ;  and  he  must  have  such  a 
clear  idea  of  the  development  of  his  theme. 


328         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric* 

that  no  thought  or  sentiment  connected 
with  it  will  be  forgotten. 

It  may  be  objected  that  so  much  reading 
and  writing  seem  superfluous  to  a  priest 
several  years  on  the  mission,  especially  as 
he  has  written  so  many  sermons  that  his 
ideas  have  now  begun  to  run  in  grooves 
out  of  which  no  amount  of  preparation  will 
take  them.  In  reply,  I  admit  that  every 
priest  is  liable  to  fall  into  those  grooves,  or 
mannerisms,  in  the  latter  years  of  his  life. 
Not  only  will  his  gestures,  the  pose  of  his 
body,  and  the  modulation  of  his  voice  be  the 
same,  Sunday  after  Sunday ;  but  there  will 
be  in  all  his  sermons  a  uniform  mode  of 
definition,  division,  illustration,  etc.  Such 
sameness,  being  the  expression  of  the 
preacher's  individuality,  cannot  be  avoided; 
and  it  will  scarcely  be  observed,  if  he  be 
earnest  and  conscientious  in  his  prepara- 
tion. He  will  realize  too  vividly  the  truths 
he  announces,  and  he  will  be  too  much 
impressed  with  the  duty  of  bringing  them 
home  to  the  heart  and  conscience  of  his 
audience,  to  be  satisfied  with  giving  them, 
no  matter  how  often  repeated,  in  the  same 
stale,  hackneyed,  stereotyped  form.  Truths 


Manual  oj  Sacred  Rhetoric.         329 

grow  in  the  mind  of  every  earnest  thinker, 
— they  are  not  today  what  they  were  yester- 
day ;  and  this  is  especially  true  of  religious 
truth  which  meditation  keeps  developing 
and  maturing  in  the  soul  all  through  life. 
Hence,  as  the  doctrine  preached  a  year  ago 
will  present  itself  in  a  fuller  light  and  with 
a  deeper  meaning  to  the  earnest  preacher 
who  meditates  on  it  for  next  Sunday's  ser- 
mon, so,  too,  will  he  present  it  with  greater 
freshness,  clearness  and  profundity  to  his 
people.  It  is  true  that  no  substantial  change 
can  be  made  in  his  definitions ;  but  his  de- 
velopment of  them  will  be  fuller,  more  lucid, 
more  dense  with  suggestive  thought.  His 
illustrations  also  will  be  more  copious  and 
pointed ;  his  quotations  from  Sacred  Scrip- 
ture, history  and  experience  will  be  more 
ample  and  vivid ;  and,  lastly,  his  motives, 
as  arrows  sped  by  a  stronger  hand,  will  be 
more  certain  to  attain  their  object. 

In  the  third  period  of  a  preacher's  life, 
then,  the  preparatory  work  ought  to  be  as 
minute  and  painstaking  as  in  the  other 
periods,  although  no  formal  composition  or 
memorizing  is  required.  Age  has  a  tendency 
to  lower  our  ideals  and  to  make  us  satisfied 


330         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric, 

with  perfunctory  work.  Hence,  priests 
grown  old  on  the  mission,  to  counteract  such 
tendency,  must  meditate  often  on  the  ter- 
rible, mysterious  truth,  that  on  the  apostolic 
earnestness  of  their  preaching  and  their 
preparation  for  preaching,  the  salvation  of 
many  souls  may  virtually  depend.  No 
doubt,  the  full,  clear,  resonant  voice  of 
young  manhood  becomes  in  time  weak  and 
unmusical ;  the  luxuriant  imagery  of  earlier 
sermons  gives  place  later  on  to  plain,  unem- 
bellished  speech;  likes  and  dislikes,  love 
and  hatred,  courage,  endurance,  ambition, 
—  all  the  feelings,  or  passions,  in  a  word, 
grow  cold  and  dull-edged  with  the  waning 
of  life,  and  a  corresponding  change  is  vis- 
ible in  the  matter  and  form  of  our  sermons. 
But  with  due  preparation,  there  is  an  impres- 
siveness  —  a  persuasive  force  in  the  calm, 
simple,  earnest  preaching  of  a  priest  grown 
gray  in  the  faithful  service  of  his  Master 
that  no  youthful  eloquence  can  command. 

Note.  The  question  is  sometimes  asked,  is  it  per- 
missible, or  even  advisable,  to  preach  extempore  ?  The 
answer  depends  on  the  meaning  we  attach  to  the  word 
extempore.  If  it  mean  "without  preparation,"  no 
writer,  as  far  as  I  know,  has  ever  sanctioned  such 
preaching;  but  if  it  mean  "with  due  study  of  matter 


Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric.         331 

and  arrangement,  without  writing,"  then  the  solution 
of  the  question  is  easily  determined  by  what  has  been 
laid  down  in  the  preceding  paragraphs. 

Besides  the  Sunday  sermon,  a  priest  has 
often  to  speak  informally  to  sodalities, 
school  children,  etc.  On  such  occasions, 
whether  he  be  young  or  old,  he  should  study 
and  arrange  what  he  has  to  say.  He  need 
not,  indeed,  write  it  out,  much  less  mem- 
orize it;  but  reverence  for  the  Word  he 
announces,  as  well  as  respect  for  his  hearers 
and  himself,  forbids  him  as  the  representa- 
tive of  his  divine  Master  to  speak  on  sacred 
things  in  a  desultory  manner.  An  ambas- 
sador, acting  officially,  ought  never  appear 
in  deshabille. 

The  practice  of  composition,  begun  in  the 
preparatory  seminary,  should  be  enforced 
as  part  of  the  curriculum  through  the  whole 
after  course  of  the  clerical  student.  I  know 
this  is  not  done  in  many  seminaries,  in 
which,  nevertheless,  Hebrew  is  made  com- 
pulsory. The  consequence  is,  that  the  habit 
of  writing  with  ease  is  lost  by  disuse ;  and 
the  young  theologian,  when  he  has  to  write 
a  sermon  toward  the  end  of  his  course, 
suffers  acute  torture  in  doing  a  work  which 
he  should  find  easy  and  pleasant. 


332         Manual  of  Sacred  Bhetoric, 

Note;.  I  do  not  ignore  the  necessity  of  a  knowledge 
of  Hebrew  and  Greek  for  the  critical  study  of  the  Bible; 
but  I  maintain  that  for  all  missionary  priests  the  know- 
ledge of  the  vernacular  is  much  more  necessary.  We 
should  strive  for  proficiency  in  both  branches  of  know- 
ledge ;  but  if  one  must  be  neglected,  it  certainly  should 
not  be  the  latter. 

The  following  practical  hints  on  the  com- 
position of  a  sermon  may  be  of  some  use  to 
young  preachers. 

1.  Begin  to  write  only  when  you  have 
studied  your  theme  thoroughly,  and  have 
acquired  a  full,  clear  and  distinct  knowledge 
of  what  you  are  going  to  write. 

2.  Many  young  writers  cannot  easily 
determine  how  to  begin.  If  they  had  once 
started,  they  think  they  would  write  fluent- 
ly ;  but  the  difficulty  with  them  is  how  to 
start.  Let  them  imagine  themselves  in  the 
pulpit  at  the  point  of  their  sermon  with 
which  they  begin  to  write,  —  say  the  propo- 
sition. What  would  they  say?  Some  words 
will  surely  occur  to  them,  and  in  all  likeli- 
hood they  are  the  best  to  begin  with. 
Another  plan  of  starting  for  such  writers  is 
to  be  indifferent  about  the  first  sentence  or 
two  and  to  write  on  with  the  intention  of 
changing  or  correcting  afterwards,  if  neces- 
sary.    Their  minds  are  thus  relieved  of  the 


Manual  of  Sacred  BJietoric,         333 

burden  of  reflecting  on  the  propriety  of 
every  word  they  use,  and  they  can  give  their 
undivided  energy  to  the  plain,  unaffected 
expression  of  their  thoughts  and  sentiments. 

NoT^.  I  may  mention  here  that  the  less  we  think  of 
the  rules  of  grammar  and  rhetoric  while  writing,  the 
better  we  shall  write.  Unless  purity  of  diction  and 
force  and  elegance  of  style  come  naturally  and,  as  I 
may  say,  spontaneously  to  us  from  previous  training, 
no  amount  of  correction  at  the  time  of  writing  will 
secure  them. 

3.  Make  no  effort  to  write  fine  language. 
If  your  thought  be  beautiful,  simplicity  of 
expression  will  make  it  more  beautiful  still 
— will  be  its  best  setting.  Balanced  phrases 
and  clauses  and  all  artificial  sentence- 
forms  have  scarcely  any  place  in  oratory, 
whether  sacred  or  profane.  Under  fine 
writing,  however,  I  do  not  include  figurative 
language,  in  which  genuine  passion  finds 
its  natural  expression. 

4.  Keep  in  mind  that  a  sermon  is  essen- 
tially a  conciliatory,  persuasive  discourse. 
If  you  are  a  young  preacher,  your  composi- 
tion is  apt  to  be  abstract  and  didactic  —  a 
theological  essay  rather  than  a  popular 
address.  While  you  write,  therefore,  ask 
yourself  frequently :  Will  the  people  under- 
stand this  presentment  of  the  theme?  Will  it 


334         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric, 

interest  them?  Will,  it  stimulate  them!  Will 
it  dispose  them  toward  the  definite  object  I 
have  in  view?  Eemember  that  the  oratorical 
instinct  should  lead  you  to  write  or  say,  not 
what  appears  most  beautiful  or  impressive 
in  itself,  but  what  will  appear  such  to  the 
audience  you  address. 

5.  When  you  find  it  hard  to  make  your 
exposition  or  enforcement  of  some  truth  or 
duty  simple  and  interesting,  imagine  your- 
self trying  to  bring  it  home  to  the  most  ig- 
norant, dull-witted  member  of  your  parish, 
as  you  sit  face  to  face  with  him  in  your 
library.  Write  down  every  word  you  would 
say  to  him,  every  repetition  you  would  make 
to  bring  your  ideas  more  thoroughly  home 
to  him,  every  difficulty  of  the  understand- 
ing, every  repugnance  of  the  will  you  would 
remove  from  him,  every  motive  of  action 
you  would  urge  on  him.  Write  all  this,  and 
your  sermon  will  be  as  complete,  as  popular, 
as  successful  as  it  is  in  your  power  to  make 
it.  Your  eager  determination  to  convince 
and  persuade  him  will  make  you  anxious 
about  the  ideas  and  sentiments  you  convey, 
but  not  about  the  words  in  which  you  con- 
vey them.     These  will  come  spontaneously 


Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric,         335 

from  your  trained  power  of  expression ;  and 
they  will  be  all  the  more  simple  and  forc- 
ible, for  not  being  studied  or  even  thought 
of  apart  from  the  knowledge  they  convey. 

6.  Sermons  composed  at  odds  and  ends 
of  time  can  scarcely  ever  be  well  written. 
The  soul  must  be  at  white  heat  before  it  can 
infuse  itself  into  any  work  it  undertakes;  and 
time  and  thought  and  feeling  are  required 
to  bring  it  to  that  ardent  state.  Hence  I 
should  recommend  that  not  less  than  an 
hour's  sitting  should  be  given  to  the  com- 
position of  a  sermon  until  it  is  finished. 

7.  It  will  sometimes  occur  that  a  priest, 
beginning  to  write  his  sermon,  will  find  his 
mind  so  clouded  and  torpid,  that  he  can 
scarcely  put  two  ideas  together,  much  less 
give  adequate  expression  to  a  consecutive 
line  of  thought.  Some  would  advise  him 
not  to  write  until  such  darkness  and  inert- 
ness pass  away.  Their  advice  may  be  useful 
for  amateurs,  but  cannot  be  acted  on  by 
one  whose  time  for  preparing  his  sermons 
is  limited.  His  best  way  for  rising  above 
those  clouds  that  sometimes  settle  on  the 
soul  is  to  read  some  book  that  will  have  a 
stimulating,  inspiring  effect  on  him — a  book 


336         Manual  of  Sacred  Rhetoric, 

that  will  set  him  thinking,  that  will  suggest 
to  him  noble,  beautiful  thoughts.  Let  him 
read  a  page  or  two  of  such  a  book;  and  he 
must  be  very  dull  indeed  if,  after  doing  so, 
he  will  not  find  himself  able  if  not  impelled 
to  begin  to  write.  Everyone  of  any  literary 
culture  will  know  what  books  have  the  most 
stimulating  effect  on  him;  and  he  will  do 
well  to  keep  one  or  more  of  them  by  him. 


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